Actress Mandira Bedi recently spoke about her decision to adopt a baby girl. She adopted a baby girl with her late husband Raj Kaushal and named her Tara Bedi Kaushal. Mandira said that she always wanted to adopt a baby girl and had told Raj about this during their love affair. The actress also revealed that when she adopted Tara, her son Veer was nine years old and how he reacted to the arrival of a new member in the family.

Mandira Bedi revealed that she had told Raj at the beginning of their relationship, “I want a child and I want to adopt it.” She explained how she did not want to become a mother in the initial years of their marriage. Humans Of Bombay“When we got married, I was not ready to get pregnant for a while. I was very busy playing cricket; some of my contracts did not allow me to get pregnant, and then there was a woman in my family who was trying to get pregnant and was undergoing IVF, and the IVF was failing. And then I realised, I want to be a mother. I am not going to let life pass me by. I want to be a parent.”

She said, “The day I decided, I got pregnant three months after that. When I got pregnant, we had been married for 13 years. I was very busy running around. When I became a mother, I realised, ‘This is the best thing I have ever done.’ Then I thought, I want more. So, when Veer was six years old, I submitted the papers for adoption.”

It took Mandira and Raj three years to finally adopt a girl and bring her home. They mentioned in their adoption papers that they were willing to adopt a child from anywhere in India, thereby adding their name to the list.

“When my son Vir was about six, I submitted the adoption papers. It’s a long process, and I don’t know why it’s not easy. I mean, I understand the reasons, but when it’s clear that this is a good family, it should be easy. It took a while – Vir turned nine, the pandemic hit, and I said to Raj, ‘It still hasn’t happened. Why?’ We got caught up in it and we didn’t do much follow-up. So, I thought, now or never, and we moved on.”

Eventually, they managed to see pictures of Tara, who hails from Tikamgarh, Jabalpur, through mail and instantly knew they wanted her in their family. Raj sent her from Jabalpur to Mumbai by private jet, as the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak at that time.

Mandira Bedi said, “A girl who never sat in a car came in a private jet. It was luck and fortune. We wouldn’t have used a private jet, but flying commercially was too dangerous as Covid was at its peak.”

She added that Veer was not ready to have a sister and was not impressed with Tara when he first met her. Veer’s apprehension made Mandira doubt her decision to bring Tara into the family. She said, “I was so overwhelmed because a little human was coming into our lives and everything would change. Veer was crying, and I was crying. When we reached the airport, this little girl with a plastic cap came with Raj. She was very tiny. It took time for her to settle into the family and for Veer to like her.”

But now, over the past few years, both her children have become attracted to each other and fight like siblings.

Mandira’s husband Raj Kaushal died of a heart attack on June 30, 2021. Talking about his loss, the DDLJ actor said, “It’s been three years and the only way out is through it. My kids and I, we think about him every day. It’s not like we’ve forgotten, but I can talk about it without tears in my eyes because I’ve dealt with it.”