Shobhaa De claims Dharmendra’s first family left out HemaMalini

After the legend’s death, HemaMalini was left out of his first family, says Shobhaa De in a recent interview.

The ‘He-Man’ of Bollywood, Dharmendra, passed away on November 24. The veteran star breathed his last at his Mumbai residence at the age of 89, weeks before his 90th birthday. On November 27, his sons, Sunny and Bobby Deol, hosted a prayer meet at TajLands End in Mumbai. HemaMalini, who didn’t attend the prayer meet, later hosted a Geeta Path at her home on the same day. Indian novelist Shobhaa De has now claimedHemaMalini was left out by Dharmendra’s first family.

ShobhaaDe’s claims about HemaMalini being left out after Dharmendra’s death.

On December 11, HemaMalini, along with her daughters Esha and AhanaDeol, hosted a separate prayer meet in Delhi. Indian novelist and columnist Shobhaa De has now claimed that Dharmendra’s first family with wife Prakash Kaur sidelinedHema after his death. In an interview with BarkhaDutt, De said, “Must have been a particularly difficult and hard decision… To be totally left out by the first family from something that she had spent 45 years of her own life… Nourishing, cherishing, which had enriched her life. She had two daughters from this marriage. It must have hurt terribly, but she kept all that for her own privacy. However, she wished to deal with it, and when she did have a public function, I thought she conducted it with utmost dignity, not just for herself but for the person she had lost…”

Shobhaa De also spoke about HemaMalini’s dignity as a person.

De went on to explain, “Given the fact that Hema is a towering personality herself, the idea that she chose dignity over making a public display of one-upmanship, I think, says a lot about her character. She could so easily have, in a way, it’s not a nice word but, hijacked those emotional moments right after Dharamji passed away. The media would have loved to cover every tear and every gasp that she may have taken and intruded into her privacy and completely stripped her of the dignity that obviously matters so much to her.”