The gold digger tag came fast after Lalit Modi announced their relationship in 2022. What the trolls did not know was that Sushmita Sen was already buying her own diamonds. Modi has now said so himself, four years later.
Image Source: Instagram
Four years after one of Bollywood’s most talked-about relationship announcements, Lalit Modi is speaking again. The IPL founder sat down for a detailed interview with Humans of Bombay, covering his time building the league, his legal battles, and his personal life. Among the topics that came up was his relationship with actress and former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen, and the vicious trolling she faced when their romance became public.
Modi used the Humans of Bombay platform, which has become a go-to destination for long-form personal storytelling, to set the record straight on what he called an unfair and baseless label.
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Modi was direct. He called the ‘gold digger’ tag aimed at Sushmita Sen completely wrong and said she was never financially dependent on him in any way. In fact, he flipped the narrative entirely. He joked that he often felt like a “kept boyfriend” when they went out together, because she picked up the tab and bought her own things, including her own diamonds.
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He said, “Sushmita is a beautiful, successful and self-made woman. She has more diamonds than almost anyone I know, and she earned everything herself. She even had diamond stores.”
He also described Sen as a dear friend and an important part of his life. On the 2022 social media post that started it all, he admitted it was an impulsive move that neither of them had quite prepared for.
In July 2022, Modi shared romantic photographs from their vacations in the Maldives and Sardinia. He initially described Sushmita as his “better half” and said their relationship was “a new beginning, a new life finally.”
Within minutes of the post going viral, he clarified: “Just for clarity. Not married, just dating each other. That too it will happen one day.”
Sen responded the next day on Instagram, surrounded by her daughters Renee and Alisah. She said she was “not married, no rings, and unconditionally surrounded by love,” adding the hashtag #NOYB, meaning None of Your Business.
The backlash was fast and ugly. A section of social media users accused Sen of being a gold digger. Her name trended in India for days. Jokes and negative comments spread on WhatsApp as well.
All her achievements seemed to be set aside. This was a woman who had starred in around three dozen films, won prestigious cinema awards, and is widely regarded as a woman of substance. None of that mattered to the trolls in that moment.
Sen did not wait for anyone to defend her. She went on Instagram and addressed the trolling head-on.
She wrote: “The so-called intellectuals with their idiosyncrasies, the ignorant with their cheap and at times funny gossip. The friends I never had and the acquaintances I’ve never met, all sharing their grand opinions and deep knowledge of my life and character, monetising the ‘Gold Digger’ all the way.”
She added: “I dig deeper than gold and I’ve always (famously) preferred diamonds. And yes I still buy them myself.”
She addressed the label again in 2023 while promoting her series Taali. She said: “An insult is an insult when you receive it. I don’t receive it. So it went out of the window.”
In another interview, she said: “I was looking at memes calling me a gold digger, but they were monetising the same content online. Let’s get the facts straight. I don’t even like gold. I like diamonds.”
According to available records, Sushmita Sen and Lalit Modi were in a relationship from 2022 until February 2025. Before news of their split emerged, Modi had removed all photos with Sushmita from his Instagram and changed his bio, which triggered widespread speculation.
Modi later introduced a new partner, Rima Bouri, a long-time friend, on Valentine’s Day 2025. Sen confirmed she was single.
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