Ram Kapoor and celebrity campaign to normalize cheating
On Lock Up, Ram Kapoor said cheating in marriage is not a dealbreaker. Good. Whatever works for him and others. But what is it with celebrities trying to normalize infidelity on these shows?
Actor Ram Kapoor is hardly the first celebrity to defend infidelity, but he is the latest to do so with surprising conviction. During her appearance on Locked Up, the 52-year-old argued that cheating in a marriage is not a “dealbreaker” – if it happens once during a difficult phase, it should be forgiven as a mistake, provided that the partner eventually realizes his or her mistake and moves back home.
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His comments are not an isolated opinion. They are part of an increasingly familiar pattern in the entertainment industry, where celebrities across films, OTT and television appear more willing than ever to present infidelity as an unfortunate but normal part of long-term relationships. A “mistake”, a weak moment or lapse in judgment that should not overshadow years of marriage.
The question is: When did betrayal stop being a breach of trust and start becoming something we are expected to understand, accommodate, and eventually normalize?
This idea, as troubling as it is, has slipped into conversation like another inevitable consequence of the glamorous life – spoken with a confidence that almost suggests fidelity is an old expectation. It is no longer discussed as a personal failure. It is being presented as the price of emotional maturity, realism and a long marriage.
Has betrayal now become something we are expected to do only within the institution of marriage or committed relationships?
What makes these conversations particularly uncomfortable is not that celebrities admit to the existence of infidelity. Matters have always existed. People cheat and marriages survive them. Many people don’t do this – that’s the reality. However, the problem begins when reality is being rethought as an inevitability, as if casually saying “Yeah, so what? It happens.”
When? Ram Kapoor calls fraud a ‘mistake’He’s not just describing human fallibility, he’s undermining accountability. Mistake means sending message to wrong person. Forgetting anniversaries is a mistake. Missing an important date is a mistake. Cheating is not accidental. It is a series of conscious decisions taken over hours, days, or even months, where every conversation is entertained, every lie is deliberately told, and every boundary is deliberately crossed. To call it a momentary lapse is to erase the many moments that led to it.
That’s why fellow contestant Akanksha Chamola’s reaction impressed. “It doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a process,” he said. In one sentence, she rejects the comfortable fiction that infidelity just happens to people.
But is Kapoor alone?
Celebrity conversations have been coming to similar conclusions for years – it’s quite strange! On podcasts, talk shows, and reality television, infidelity is being discussed as an understandable occupational hazard of modern relationships, not as a breach of trust.
A public figure, such as Twinkle Khanna argued That decades of marriage shouldn’t be defined by one mistake. He said, “The night is over, the talk is over” (What’s done, done, move on), arguing that one can move on from physical cheating over time. For another, as actor Neetu Singh once said, all that matters is that the spouse comes back home. Someone else, like reality show personality Tabinda Sanpal desi bling Fame suggested that several casual encounters are better than an emotional affair because at least there are no emotions involved. The goalposts keep changing – it’s all about normalizing infidelity.
The conversation moves from asking whether cheating is wrong to having a conversation about what types of cheating should be considered acceptable. In all of these conversations trust is secondary and emotional destruction is considered an overreaction.
These conversations shift the expectations in a relationship strictly from loyalty to forgiveness. This is why the onus is now on the betrayed partner to prove that they are mature enough to move on, rather than on the unfaithful partner to think about the consequences of their choices.
Do you know what is the most worrying thing about these opinions? No, it’s not that these opinions exist, it’s the fact that influential voices repeatedly present these personal choices as universally accepted wisdom. So, while everyone has the right to define their own boundaries in a relationship and if two adults make decisions with consent Infidelity is not a dealbreaker As for them, so be it – to each his own. But it is a matter of concern when Karan Johar, who said that physical cheating is not a hindrance in relationships because “thoda lag jaati kabhi kabhi”, preaches the idea of forgiving it, moving on and that it’s okay once it’s done in a relationship.
Celebrities don’t just entertain, they also shape conversations. His words go far beyond the studio set and podcast couch. When many famous voices begin to describe cheating as “normal”, “natural” or “just a mistake”, they slowly move away from the same language we use to describe betrayal. Accountability softens, expectations are lowered and the extraordinary begins to seem ordinary.
Is this what we call being more emotionally evolved about relationships? Or are we becoming more comfortable finding sophisticated ways to forgive behavior that has always broken trust?
As far as the Ram Kapoors of the world are concerned, the next step is to stop calling it fraud altogether. “Character development” has a good effect in this.