Dating or marrying a much maligned guy who was quite horrid, indifferent or even bored of his first wife might not be such a bad idea. Don’t know what the logic behind this is, but men who didn’t have successful first marriages turn out to be awesome husbands to their second wives. Either they have finally met the right person or have
learnt from past mistakes, but the women who come into their lives at a later date just have no complaints. Mahesh Bhupati, if his ex-wife Shweta Jai-shankar and gossip are to be believed, constantly cheated on her, but look at him with fiancee Lara Dutta. She has him firmly wrapped around her little finger.
Saif Ali Khan, who arguably looks more in love with Kareena Kapoor than she does with him, is such an understanding, loving partner. He doesn’t mind
waiting for years to marry her as he admitted on Koffee with Karan that a married actress’ rating always goes down in Bollywood. But with ex-wife Amrita Singh, where was the understanding, caring side? She was the first to go from his life after he tasted success. Even Mr Perfectionist Aamir Khan couldn’t get it right the first time round with childhood sweetheart Reena. With wife Kiran Rao though, he is the most attentive and caring husband around. Always known to be super bossy in the films he is involved in, Aamir did the unthinkable and let Kiran dictate terms to him and didn’t mind when she didn’t give him the role he originally wanted to play in the movie. Prateik Babbar got to play that. But Aamir is gushing and singing his wife’s praises to everyone around.
So how does this transformation take place? What makes these guys get things perfect the second time round? “Maybe they get wise as they get older,” laughs sociologist Prof Daniel David adding, “First time round it’s purely impulsive, they just jump into a relationship with very little rational thinking.” Saif Khan would be a perfect example as Amrita Singh was atleast a decade older than him. “The second time people are a bit more cautious with their decisions as they know what can go wrong. Even love which is so irrational and arbitrary could be governed with a bit of practical thinking,” explains Prof David. He feels a bit of practical thinking should be desired in all relationships. Also emotional hurts which emerge from a broken relationship never go away according to him. They leave permanent scars, so very few want to repeat past
mistakes.
Decades back Javed Akhtar was said to be quite mean to first wife Honey Irani, but even after all these years how committed he remains to Shabana Azmi. So ladies, take a leaf out of most of our actresses’ books and don’t turn your nose up against divorcees, they might just make the perfect husbands.