While at the peak of her career, delivering back-to-back hits and dominating Bollywood, Karisma Kapoor got engaged to up-and-coming actor Abhishek Bachchan, the son of cinema legends Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. Although their impending wedding generated major headlines — with Karisma being spotted alongside the Bachchans quite a few times and Jaya even referring to the Raja Hindustani star as her “future daughter-in-law” at an event — the engagement was called off a few months later.
Despite swirling rumours, the two Khandans always kept the reason behind the split private. Nonetheless, Karisma herself referred to the period following the cancellation of her engagement as “traumatic” and maintained that she “wouldn’t wish any girl to go through it.” In a 2003 interview with Rediff, she also opened up about her decision to step away from the limelight afterwards. “It was deliberate. I withdrew into a shell. I just was not ready to go public with my grief. I chose a dignified silence because that is the kind of person I am. I have always been a woman of few words,” she said.
She added, “The beginning of this year was traumatic for me. I wouldn’t wish any girl to go through it. I was forced to deal with my hurt and pain on my own. I guess time is the best healer. Though I have been through a lot, I have come to terms with whatever has happened. All I will say is, whatever is destined is bound to happen. I was emotionally unprepared to confront my problems. Life deals you different cards. You have to just go with the shuffle.”
Karisma Kapoor with her then-fiancé Abhishek Bachchan and his mother Jaya Bachchan at the premiere of Refugee. The movie marked the debut of Abhishek as well as Karisma’s sister Kareena Kapoor. (Express archive photo)
Though there were rumours that the engagement was called off due to alleged differences between her mother, yesteryear actor Babita Kapoor, and the Bachchans, Karisma maintained that it was her family that kept her emotionally anchored during those trying times. “I couldn’t have come out my trauma if it wasn’t for my parents (Babita and Randhir Kapoor), sister (Kareena Kapoor), my dadiji (grandmother Krishna Raj Kapoor), my two buas (aunts Rima Jain and Ritu Nanda) and my close friends.”
Karisma Kapoor eventually tied the knot with industrialist Sunjay Kapur, but they parted ways just over a decade later while being parents to two children. Sunjay passed away on June 12, 2025.
