Javed Akhtar blames his drinking habit for the failure of his first marriage with Honey Irani; Claims it could have been avoided: ‘You make decisions on impulse…’

Legendary screenwriter Javed Akhtar was first married to Honey Irani, with whom he has two children, Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar. Recently, he opened up about his struggle with alcohol addiction during his younger days, which he also cited as the reason behind the failure of his first marriage. He admitted to making mistakes in the past.

In a recent conversation with Sapan Verma on his YouTube channel, veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar was asked if he ever did anything wrong, but a lot changed as he grew up. In response, the wall writer immediately admitted that he “wasted a lot of time drinking.” He called himself an “alcoholic” and recalled quitting drinking on July 31, 1991.

The 79-year-old man said that he could have used 10 years of his life for many positive and constructive purposes, but he misused it in drinking. He also advised the youth to stop drinking alcohol. According to him, if we look at his life, he never made any major mistake in his life without the influence of alcohol.

“I regret the failure of my first marriage. It could have been saved. But it was my irresponsible attitude, my drinking… When you are drunk, you make impulsive decisions, you start fussing about some things which are not such big issues. I have made all these mistakes,” he added.

Notably, in the third episode of his documentary, Angry Young Men, Akhtar also addressed the failure of his first marriage, expressing that Hani is the one person in the Iranian world whom he feels guilty about. He also admitted that if he had been more sensible at that time, many things would not have gone wrong.

Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani married in 1972 and had two children, Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar. The veteran lyricist married Shabana Azmi on 9 December 1984 and divorced Honey Irani in 1985.

On the professional front, Javed was recently seen in a documentary series titled Angry Young Men. Directed by Namrata Rao, it is based on the illustrious cinematic journey of him and co-writer Salim Khan.