Former Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik have been divorced for a few months now, her father confirmed on Sunday after the latter tied the knot with Pakistani actress Sana Javed in an intimate ceremony.
In a statement released on Instagram, Sania Mirza’s father Imran Mirza said that her daughter and Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik are divorced for a few months now and that she wishes him well for his new journey.
“Sania has always kept her personal life away from the public eye. However, today the need has arisen for her to share that Shoaib and she have been divorced for a few months now. She wishes Shoaib well for his new journey ahead! At this sensitive period of her life, we would like to request all fans and well- wishers to refrain from indulging in any speculation and to respect her need for privacy,” the statement read.
The confirmation of divorce between Mirza and Malik came a day after the Pakistani cricketer shared pictures of his wedding ceremony with Sana Javed in a post on ‘X’.
The development comes as a big surprise for their fans in both India and Pakistan as there was no confirmation on their rumoured separation.
In the last couple years, speculations were rife on social media that Mirza and Malik were not living together and that their marriage is on the verge of breaking down.
However, none of them came out in public to confirm. Moreover, they never spoke about their divorce, therefore, Malik’s wedding post took everyone by surprise.
On Wednesday last week, an Instagram post of Sania Mirza did hint that something was wrong between the couple. In the post, she spoke about marriage and divorce being hard.
“Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard. Obesity is hard. Being fit is hard. Choose your hard. Being in debt is hard. Being financially disciplined is hard. Choose your hard. Communication is hard. Not communicating is hard. Choose your hard. Life will never be easy. It will always be hard. But we can choose our hard. Pick wisely,” she wrote.
Malik had married Sania Mirza in 2010. The two got married in traditional Muslim ceremony in Hyderabad. In 2018, the couple had welcomed their first son Izhaan.