Love Ended, Respect Didn’t: Salman Khan And Stars Who Stood Up For Their Exes
As Salman Khan’s remarks are viewed as a defence of Katrina Kaif, we revisit Indian celebrities who protected their former partners from trolling, rumours and damaging allegations.
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Celebrity breakups rarely remain between two people. By the time the relationship ends, the public has usually appointed a villain, invented a reason and converted old photographs into evidence for a case nobody was asked to investigate. Yet occasionally, amid all that noise, a former partner steps in and says the one thing the internet was not expecting: enough. That is exactly why Salman Khan’s recent remarks on ‘Bigg Boss 20’ attracted attention. As Katrina Kaif faced cruel comments about her post-pregnancy appearance, Salman condemned the practice of trolling women for gaining weight after childbirth.
ALSO READ | From Ranbir-Alia To Ranveer-Deepika: Reel Life Couples Had Real Love Stories
It was a striking reminder that a romance may end, but concern, friendship and the willingness to correct an unfair narrative do not necessarily disappear with it.
From exes who dismantled cheating rumours to former partners who rejected “gold digger” attacks, here are Indian celebrities who publicly stood up for people they once dated.
1. Salman Khan And Katrina Kaif
Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif were reportedly together for several years, with speculation about their relationship beginning around 2003. Their first film as co-stars, ‘Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?’, arrived in 2005, although neither ever provided a neat public account of precisely when or how the romance began. After their reported split in 2010, Katrina finally acknowledged that Salman had been her “first serious relationship”. Even after breaking up, they remained friends and continued working together in films including ‘Ek Tha Tiger’, ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’, ‘Bharat and ‘Tiger 3’.
In September 2026, Salman appeared to put that long-standing affection into words on ‘Bigg Boss 20’. Addressing the ugliness of online trolling, he criticised people who mock a woman for gaining weight after becoming a mother, arguing that pregnancy naturally changes the body and that she could return to fitness whenever she resumed work. The remarks came amid sustained body-shaming directed at Katrina following her public appearances.
ALSO READ | Salman Khan Relationship Timeline: Every Confirmed Romance, Breakup And Rumours
2. Sussanne Khan And Hrithik Roshan
Hrithik Roshan and Sussanne Khan’s story lasted far longer than the average film romance. Having grown up around the same film-industry circles, they reportedly began dating around 1996 and married on December 20, 2000. They announced their separation in December 2013, and their divorce was finalised in November 2014. During their almost 14 years of marriage, they welcomed sons Hrehaan and Hridhaan.
The divorce did not stop Sussanne from defending Hrithik during his explosive public dispute with Kangana Ranaut. In 2016, after a photograph of Hrithik and Kangana began circulating as supposed proof of intimacy, Sussanne shared a wider image from the same gathering and rejected what she described as manipulated pictures and false stories. When the controversy erupted again in 2017, she posted that no allegation or “sad evil plot” could triumph over a good soul.
The protection also travelled in the opposite direction. When reports claimed Sussanne had demanded an enormous divorce settlement, Hrithik publicly dismissed the stories as fabricated and demeaning to someone he cared about. More than a decade after their divorce, they remain close co-parents and comfortably share an extended family equation with their respective partners, Saba Azad and Arslan Goni. Sussanne recently described the family as a happy, supportive unit.
3. Ranbir Kapoor And Deepika Padukone
Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone became close during the early years of their careers and confirmed their relationship in March 2008, around the time they were working on ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’. The romance lasted approximately a year and a half before they separated in 2009. It was not an entirely painless split – Deepika later spoke openly about being hurt – but the two eventually repaired their professional and personal equation, going on to make ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’ and ‘Tamasha’ together.
In March 2010, when Deepika was repeatedly being linked to Siddharth Mallya and practically every man photographed beside her, Ranbir objected during a press interaction. He described her as a straightforward person from a respectable family and asked the media to stop casually attaching her name to different men. The comment mattered because it came soon after their own breakup, when remaining silent – or feeding the gossip – would have been considerably easier. Instead, he challenged the tabloid habit of turning a single woman’s every friendship into a romance.
4. Sushant Singh Rajput And Ankita Lokhande
Sushant Singh Rajput and Ankita Lokhande met while playing Manav and Archana on the television serial ‘Pavitra Rishta’. Their on-screen love story turned real around 2009-10, and Sushant even proposed to Ankita on ‘Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa’ in 2011. They dated for close to six years and were widely reported to be considering marriage before separating in early 2016.
Their breakup was immediately surrounded by ugly rumours. Some reports attempted to blame Ankita’s alleged drinking, while others portrayed Sushant as a womaniser. In May 2016, Sushant directly rejected both narratives. He wrote that Ankita was not an alcoholic, he was not a womaniser and that sometimes people simply grow apart. It was brief, firm and unusually fair in an environment determined to identify a guilty party.
5. Vikram Bhatt And Sushmita Sen
Vikram Bhatt met Sushmita Sen while directing her debut film, ‘Dastak’, which was released in 1996. They dated for nearly two years before going their separate ways. The relationship had ended long before social media existed, and Vikram Bhatt said in 2022 that he and Sushmita had not even been in contact for approximately 15 years. Yet when she was unfairly attacked, that distance did not stop him from speaking.
After Lalit Modi announced his relationship with Sushmita in July 2022, trolls quickly labelled the actress a “gold digger”. Vikram Bhatt dismantled that accusation with personal evidence. He recalled being financially broke while they were dating and said Sushmita had paid for his first trip to the United States, even arranging a special limousine welcome for him. Calling her a “love digger, not a gold digger”, he said she was the last person who would inspect somebody’s bank balance before falling in love.
6. Samantha Ruth Prabhu And Siddharth
Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Siddharth reportedly grew close while working on the Telugu romantic comedy ‘Jabardasth’, released in 2013. They never formally announced the relationship while they were together, but were frequently photographed at events and were widely reported to have dated for about two-and-a-half years. News of their breakup emerged in January 2015.
A subsequent report described Samantha as distraught and presented the separation as though she had been left emotionally shattered. Samantha objected not only to being cast as the helpless victim but also to Siddharth being positioned as the automatic villain. She called him a “great guy”, asked the media to stop taking sides and stressed that the matter was personal.
7. Divya Agarwal And Varun Sood
Divya Agarwal and Varun Sood already moved in the same MTV-reality-show universe before entering ‘Ace of Space’ in 2018, but it was inside the show that their friendship developed into romance. Varun proposed to Divya during the programme, and they officially began dating in December 2018. Their relationship lasted a little over three years – frequently rounded up to four in reports – before Divya announced their separation on March 6, 2022.
Almost instantly, online speculation alleged that Varun had cheated on Divya with Madhurima Roy. Divya did not allow the rumour mill even a full victory lap. She described Varun as an “honest man”, warned people against attacking his character and clarified that not every separation happens because somebody has been unfaithful. Her original breakup message had also called him a great person and her best friend.
8. Lalit Modi And Sushmita Sen
Former IPL chairman Lalit Modi belongs on this list because his relationship with Sushmita Sen became one of India’s biggest celebrity stories of 2022. The two had known each other before he suddenly posted their holiday photographs in July that year and described Sushmita as his partner. Neither announced an exact starting date, and no formal breakup statement followed. By June 2026, however, Lalit Modi was openly referring to it as a past relationship and said that the geographical distance between Sushmita’s career in India and his life in London ultimately became too difficult.
Four years after the original “gold digger” insults, Lalit Modi used a 2026 interview to demolish them. He described Sushmita as successful, self-made and fiercely independent, revealing that she regularly paid when they went out and joking that he had felt like the “kept boyfriend”. According to him, she would not accept financial favours and had accumulated her wealth through her own work.
9. Naga Chaitanya And Samantha Ruth Prabhu
Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu first met while working on the 2010 Telugu romance ‘Ye Maaya Chesave’. Their friendship reportedly developed into a relationship years later, with most accounts placing the beginning of their romance around 2015. After dating for approximately two years, they married in Goa through Hindu and Christian ceremonies on October 6 and 7, 2017. The couple announced their separation on October 2, 2021, just days before their fourth wedding anniversary.
Three years later, their private history was dragged into an unexpected political storm. In October 2024, Telangana minister Konda Surekha made allegations connecting political figures to their divorce. Naga Chaitanya responded firmly, explaining that the separation had been a mutual decision made peacefully because of their different life goals. Calling the minister’s claims “false,” “ridiculous” and “unacceptable,” he added that women deserved to be supported and respected and criticised the exploitation of celebrities’ personal decisions for headlines.
10. Rakshit Shetty And Rashmika Mandanna
Rakshit Shetty and Rashmika Mandanna’s story began with ‘Kirik Party’, the 2016 Kannada blockbuster that marked Rashmika’s acting debut. The co-stars began dating during the making of the film and announced their engagement on July 3, 2017, at an intimate celebration in Rashmika’s hometown of Virajpet. The wedding, however, never happened. After a relationship lasting approximately two years, they called off their engagement in September 2018, reportedly because of compatibility differences.
Once news of the split emerged, Rashmika became the target of considerable online blame and trolling. Rakshit then stepped in and asked people to stop judging his former fiancée. He said he had known Rashmika for more than two years, stressed that outsiders did not possess the complete story and urged everyone to “let her be in peace”.
11. Kalki Koechlin And Anurag Kashyap
Kalki Koechlin met filmmaker Anurag Kashyap when he cast her in her debut film, ‘Dev.D’. Their relationship began during the making of the 2009 release, and they lived together before marrying in a private ceremony near Ooty on April 30, 2011. The couple announced that they were taking time apart in November 2013 and formally divorced in May 2015. Their marriage may not have survived, but the two maintained a relationship built on professional regard and mutual respect.
That became especially apparent in September 2020, when actor Payal Ghosh accused Anurag Kashyap of se**al misconduct – an allegation the filmmaker denied. Kalki publicly supported her former husband while urging him not to be consumed by the ensuing “social media circus”. She said that she had personally witnessed him treat her as an equal, defend women’s integrity and support her when she felt unsafe in a professional environment, including after their divorce. Anurag Kashyap’s first wife, film editor Aarti Bajaj, also posted in his support during the controversy.
When gossip turned a former partner into a convenient target, these celebrities chose to correct the record – even when staying quiet would have been easier. In an industry that often treats every separation like a box-office clash, that may be the rarest post-breakup gesture of all.
