The news
emanating from the crevices in the walls of the Bandra Family Court was that
Malaika Arora had asked Rs 10-15 crore from husband Arbaaz Khan as divorce
settlement. And
SpotboyE.com was the first to bring this to you.
A source close to the separation had then told us, "That's quite an amount
no doubt, but Rs 10 crore minimum is what Malaika wants. And she will not
settle for anything lesser." And so it has been. Arbaaz Khan is giving
Malaika an alimony of Rs 15 crore.
Yes,
you heard it right. And it's not NO ALIMONY as several sections of the media
have been shouting from rooftops since morning.
So who is
spreading this false news that Malaika did not ask for any alimony or Arbaaz
did not give? Is it Malaika herself?
I wouldn't be
surprised if it is Malaika herself. Malaika is known to tell white lies. I will
never forget how she conned me in my stint at Mumbai Mirror with a very
disturbed voice (she is not a bad actress if you had an opinion otherwise) to
believe that she was calling it quits with Arbaaz - and that too ON RECORD
(Kaput,April17,2008).
She engineered a publicity stunt for her lacklustre ad of
Ponds with Arbaaz, which shows them parting ways only to reunite later. Next
day, they blew their lungs out to say that they are still in love and firmly
married. And mind you, they had percolated this loose talk of their marriage
having hit the rocks to various people in the industry who were also under the
impression that Malaika and Arbaaz are not getting along with each other.
Next day, I ran in between her bouncers at J W Marriott (Juhu) to hand her the
cassette which had her voice in a very worried and depressed tone telling me
that Arbaaz is even thinking of marrying someone else. And you know what she
told me? She said: Why should I tell you the truth? And my photographer clicked
the picture as proof. And that too made it to Page 1 (Caught Lying,April 18, 2008) with an
editorial saying "We have been had! But that's because we don't fabricate
information and bring you only what they tell us.".
Just a thought:
Was Malaika and Arbaaz's marriage OVER even then (in 2008 iself), and they were
flogging a dead horse? The Khan-daan was not too happy with her flashy and
flamoyant style, Salman's sisters Alvira and Arpita never got along with her well...
Back to the present. And like any loving and compassionate father would, Arbaaz
has also offered to pay up for his son's upbringing. SpotboyE.com also has it
that Arbaaz will gift a house to his son as well.
Malaika has got
the son's custody and Arbaaz will have unlimited access to him.
Phew! The Ponds
ad is NOW not happening in the lives of Malaika and Arbaaz for sure (split and
reunite). Truth is so often stranger than fiction.
For those who've come in late, SpotboyE.com was the first to bring you the news
about their marriage having gone kaput.
Malaika and Arbaaz had met at an ad shoot in 1998 and were married soon. They
welcomed a son, their only child, in 2002.
We texted Malaika to speak on the Rs 15 crore settlement. The Chainya Chainya actress chose to dismiss it off saying that this was not true.
We called up lawyer Vandana Shah who has been working closely on the Arbaaz-Malaika case. She didn't deny the story but simply said, "No comments".
Image Source: Manav Manglani