When Neena Gupta became pregnant out of wedlock, Satish Kaushik offered to marry her.

In her autobiography, Sach Kahun Toh, actress Neena Gupta shared an anecdote about how her good friend, actor Satish Kaushik, proposed to her while she was pregnant with her daughter, fashion designer Masaba Gupta. Satish explained how he did so out of friendly feelings for her in a new interview.

During her 1980s relationship with former cricketer Sir Viv Richards, Neena Gupta became pregnant. Masaba Gupta was her only child, and she raised her alone.

Satish Kaushik told a leading daily that he has known Neena since 1975 and that they have a close friendship. He said his offer to marry her stemmed from his fondness for her as a friend, and he didn’t want her to be “alone.”

“I used to admire the fact that a girl at the time chose to have an unmarried child. I simply stood by her and gave her confidence as a true friend. Everything you read in the memoir is an expression of my love for her as a friend. I was worried about making her feel isolated. Isn’t that what friends are for, at the end of the day? When I proposed to marry her, it was a mix of humour, concern, respect, and support for my best friend in her time of need, as I mentioned in the book,” he said.

When Satish proposed to Neena, she was overcome with emotion, according to Satish. “I told her, ‘Main hoon na, tu chinta kyu karti hai (I’m here for you, don’t worry)’.” The gesture moved her so much that she burst into tears. Our friendship grew stronger from that day forward,” he said.

Neena also revealed in her autobiography that while she was pregnant with Masaba, another friend suggested she marry a gay man. While Neena would have been allowed to claim Masaba as her daughter, he would have been excluded from their lives.

Meanwhile, Neena Gupta was most recently seen in Sardar Ka Grandson, a film co-starring Arjun Kapoor and Rakul Preet Singh.