Bhubaneswar: A day after Shoaib Malik announced his third marriage with actor Sana Javed, Sania Mirza’s family on Sunday confirmed that the Indian tennis icon and the Pakistani cricketer have been “divorced for a few months now”.
In the statement, Sania’s team and her family wrote: “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.”
View this post on Instagram
The revelation came amid long-standing rumours and speculation surrounding the strained relationship between Sania and Shoaib, who got married in April 2010 in the Indian player’s hometown of Hyderabad. They used to live in Dubai and welcomed their son, Izhaan Mirza Malik, in 2018.
It gathered momentum when the cricketer recently unfollowed Sania, 37, on Instagram. Sania has also spared rumours of divorce with a cryptic post on social media earlier this month.
On Saturday, fans were taken aback when the 41-year-old cricketer posted wedding picture with Sana on social media platforms, even as speculation of Shoaib dating the actor was rife. A family member of Sania had then told PTI that the tennis ace had unilaterally divorced her husband. “It was a ‘khula'”, which refers to the right of a Muslim woman to divorce her husband unilaterally.
