Kabir Bedi has established his name as an actor in three countries which are, India, the United States, and Italy. He is still remembered for his good looks and portraying the iconic role of ‘Gobinda’ in the 1983 James Bond film, Octopussy. However, the model-turned-actor has hoarded the spotlight for his tumultuous love life more than his career. The actor has been married four times. However, the most talked-about relationship of Kabir has been with his first wife, Protima, since they had an open marriage in the ’70s.
Kabir Bedi revealed about his open marriage with Protima Gauri
Kabir and Protima Gauri tied the knot in 1969 and were blessed with two children, Pooja and Siddharth. Their relationship had its fair share of ups and downs, but the couple wanted to make it work for the sake of their kids. In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Kabir revealed that they wanted to save their marriage, so they decided that the only way to do that was to try an open marriage. He said that towards the end both of them wanted to have extramarital affairs, so they decided to date other people outside their marriage but stay together. But this experiment of open marriage failed and they divorced in 1974. Talking about his relationship with Protima, the veteran actor said:
“Protima and I got married, had kids… It was a 7-year-long relationship. Towards the end, when we started having problems, the problems of extramarital relationships were such that if we wanted to continue with our marriage, open marriage was the only way to stay together but that experiment also failed. Ultimately, we had to leave.”
Kabir Bedi says he was bothered by Protima’s relationship with other men
Both Kabir and Protima began seeing other people while they were still married to each other. When asked if knowing that his wife was in a relationship with other men bothered him, Kabir said in the interview that it did. The actor said that both of them thought that the ’70s were the time of the hippies, free love and openness, and they could successfully make an open marriage work. However, Kabir said that they failed with their experiment of open marriage. Talking about his wife dating other men, the Mohenjo Daro actor said:
“It bothered me. I had hoped that it wouldn’t bother me but it did. It takes some very special kind of people to survive an open marriage and we were not them. We thought we would. We thought this is the age of free love and openness etc. It was 1960s-70s, the era of flower power, hippies, demonstrations of peace, new types of music, social change, social experimentation, we thought that we will fond our salvation. We thought we can’t do a normal marriage, let’s try an open marriage, but the experiment failed.”
More about Kabir Bedi and Protima Gauri’s marriage
In a past interview with Digital Commentary, Kabir revealed that though he and Protima may have divorced, he fulfilled all his responsibilities towards her and their children. The actor ensured that he was never absent from the lives of his kids, Pooja and Siddharth. In the same interview, Kabir revealed that after his divorce, he was working in the US. So, his children would come over to visit him during their summer and winter holidays.
What are your thoughts on Kabir Bedi revealing that he was bothered by his wife’s relationships with other men in their open marriage?
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