Actress Dalljiet Kaur has lived through two broken marriages, and in a candid conversation with The Free Press Journal, she opened up about the pain of her past. Speaking about her first marriage with actor Shalin Bhanot, the breakup, and the divorce, Dalljiet revealed how the experience was far more painful than her recent separation. What makes the first heartbreak harder, she says, is that she had just become a mother at the time.
"It was 100 per cent more heartbreaking when it happened the first time. Back then, I wasn’t mentally prepared, and physically I wasn’t ready either because I had just given birth. Jaydon was a premature baby with complications, and I had to rush him to the hospital multiple times. He was even put in the ICU after birth. It was physically very painful to be alone during that time, but my family stood by me. Mentally, though, I couldn’t even process how much it was affecting me because I was in full mommy mode, trying to take care of Jaydon and figure everything out. It was very difficult and very painful,” she shared.
Dalljiet then opened up about her anger and disappointment towards Shalin Bhanot, who, after being present in Jaydon’s life for nine years, suddenly disappeared after her second marriage fell apart.
“On a human level, the first thought is—how does this even make sense? One moment you’re there, the next you just vanish. That’s exactly what happened, and it was shocking. Thanks to Instagram, I still see his posts, dancing and living his life. Even after our divorce, I was his cheerleader despite being angry at him for many things. Whenever he wanted to meet Jaydon, I never stopped him. Even a day before my second marriage, I made sure he met the groom and told him, ‘Come to Kenya, meet us.’ I never said, ‘You can’t do this.’ For me, it was always about what’s best for Jaydon.”
She added, “When someone once asked me to prove that he was violent, I said, ‘It’s not my job to prove anything.’ I don’t want to speak about that. But I will speak about this. If he had been part of Jaydon’s journey, I would have been the first to acknowledge it, no matter how angry I was with him. But instead, when the time came to redeem himself, he disappeared. Not in front of me - I’m nobody—but in front of his child. Jaydon looked for him in that void, and no child should ever go through that.”
The actress revealed that during their divorce, there was a clear understanding that Shalin could meet Jaydon whenever he wished. “For nine years, he was present. He came home, attended birthdays, met him in restaurants. I always welcomed him because Jaydon deserved his father. I never initiated, because it had to come from him. But then suddenly, after nine years, he disappeared. Children don’t understand divorce or anger. At one or two, all Jaydon knew was, ‘This is my dad.’ I never denied him that. I always gave Shalin that respect. But vanishing from a child’s life after nine years - it’s something I can’t comprehend. My only concern is that he abandoned his child, and that void is something Jaydon has to live with.”
Calling out the abandonment as inhuman, Dalljiet expressed, “His parents never wanted to be involved from the very first day, so I didn’t expect anything from them - it’s their loss, because my son is amazing. But for Shalin to vanish when Jaydon was nine years old was shocking. Jaydon must have felt that he did something wrong, that his father disappeared because of him. He asked me so many times what went wrong, and I had no answer. That’s not fair on a very human level. I will continue to speak about it until this anger leaves me, because the hurt is too deep. Maybe he feared I would ask for help after my second marriage failed, but I would never have done that. I can work and earn my own money even today. But I will never understand why he chose to walk away.”
