In the wake of the recent attack on Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan at his Bandra home, Twinkle Khanna has spoken out against the unfounded rumors circulating in the media that unfairly blame his wife, Kareena Kapoor.
The incident, which left Saif injured and required hospitalization, raised serious concerns about the safety of celebrities.
Following the attack, which occurred when an intruder confronted Saif’s maid and escalated to Saif being stabbed multiple times, he was treated at Lilavati Hospital and discharged last week.
Khanna addressed the bizarre media narrative in her latest column for The Times of India, denouncing the “ridiculous rumors” suggesting that Kareena was either absent during the incident or too intoxicated to assist her husband. She expressed her disbelief at how quickly people were willing to assign blame without any credible evidence. Twinkle pointed out that it is a troubling trend for women, particularly wives, to be scapegoated in such situations.
In her column, Twinkle Khanna highlighted broader societal issues regarding the expectations placed on women.
She noted that women often face blame regardless of their actions—whether their husbands gain or lose weight, or if their homes are tidy or messy. She shared a personal anecdote about a relative jokingly attributing men’s baldness to their wives, illustrating how women are often held responsible for circumstances beyond their control.
She wrote”
“In the wake of Saif Ali Khan’s stabbing, a sense of vulnerability has taken root in homes everywhere. After a period of detaining every naturally spindly man they could find, and some on Ozempic, the cops have finally nabbed the perpetrator. While Saif was in hospital, ridiculous rumours swirled that his wife hadn’t been at home or had been too intoxicated to help him during the assault. The absence of any sort of evidence did nothing to stop these dumb theories. People just enjoyed shifting the blame onto the wife — an all-too-familiar pattern.”
She went on to write further on this issue. It read,
“This is a widespread issue, not limited to couples in the public eye. If your husband gains too much weight, you are not taking care of his health; if he loses too many kilos, you are not feeding him well. If your house is untidy, you are lazy; if it’s too neat, you are a control freak. If you work, you are too ambitious; if you don’t, you are good for nothing. If he’s caring, they’ll claim you’ve manipulated him; if he’s indifferent, they’ll blame you for not handling him right. Last week, I attended a small family gathering where one of the relatives remarked, ‘Look, my five uncles are bald, and the one who still has hair, he is the only one who is not married’. Apparently, wives can also be blamed for baldness. In this context, I suppose it’s accurate to say that behind every man, loser or leader, stands a woman who is about to be vilified, at the drop of a hat, or with it firmly on her head.”
Twinkle Khanna has defended Kareena Kapoor after the latter was blamed for being allegedly intoxicated during the attack on Saif Ali Khan. “People just enjoyed shifting the blame onto the wife, an all-too-familiar pattern,” she wrote in a column for TOI. “I suppose it’s… pic.twitter.com/0woarVe0x3
— Nut Boult (@NutBoult) January 26, 2025
Kareena Kapoor, who was out socializing with friends during the attack, later took to Instagram to request privacy for her family amid the media frenzy. She expressed the emotional strain the incident had caused and asked for space as they processed the events.
As this situation unfolds, it remains clear that both Twinkle Khanna and Kareena Kapoor are addressing not just personal challenges but also broader societal issues regarding gender expectations and media scrutiny.