Arjun Rampal on broken marriage, mother's cancer and the years that tested him
Actor Arjun Rampal opened up about the period when his marriage to model Mehr Jesia was ending, and his mother had cancer. He said his partner, fashion designer Gabriella Demetriades, became an anchor as grief, loss and introspection reshaped his life.
Actor Arjun Rampal has spoken about what he called the darkest phase of his life, saying it came when his marriage to model Mehr Jesia was breaking down and his mother was battling cancer. In the same conversation, he said his partner, fashion designer Gabriella Demetriades, entered his life at a time when he felt he was losing the people closest to him, and became a strong anchor as he tried to deal with grief, change and emotional upheaval.
Speaking to Sohini on the YouTube show Cancelled to Crown, Rampal looked back at a period marked by loneliness and loss. The 53-year-old actor said he had already lost his father three years earlier, was drifting away from friends, and felt that everything he had worked hard to build was slipping away. He also spoke about the introspection that followed and how he tried to understand his own faults instead of blaming others.
The Dhurandhar actor said the loneliest he had ever felt was when he was not connected with himself in the way he is today. Reflecting on the end of his marriage, Rampal said it was sad, but added that love is not constant and neither are people. According to him, people keep changing, and at times, two people do not grow or change well together.
Rampal said that period may have been the most difficult of his life. "I think that was maybe the darkest phase of my life because at that point in time it was exactly the time my mum had cancer and I was losing her. I was losing everybody who was close to me. I had lost my father three years before that. I was losing friends. I was losing everything that I had worked so hard to get," he said.
Support from Gabriella Demetriades
The actor then spoke about Demetriades and the support he found in that relationship. He said he was lucky to have somebody like Gabriella in his life, describing her as a very strong anchor who was also coming from a space of darkness.
"So we both were in the storm and we had to, like I said, weather it. But it's good, we got to weather it together and then the blessings came," he added.
The actor also said blame only makes a person more miserable, because it becomes a crutch to avoid honest introspection and turns one into a victim. When a person loses everything, he said, what remains is pure introspection and the need to go within and understand what one has become, why things happened, and what one’s faults are.
Rampal and model-designer Gabriella Demetriades met in 2018 through mutual friends and later began dating. They welcomed their first son, Arik, in 2019 and Ariv in 2023.
Rampal had separated from his wife, producer and model Mehr Jesia, in 2018.
On the work front, he recently featured in Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge. He played Major Iqbal in the film, which also starred Ranveer Singh, R Madhavan, Sara Arjun, Rakesh Bedi among others.
Actor Arjun Rampal has spoken about what he called the darkest phase of his life, saying it came when his marriage to model Mehr Jesia was breaking down and his mother was battling cancer. In the same conversation, he said his partner, fashion designer Gabriella Demetriades, entered his life at a time when he felt he was losing the people closest to him, and became a strong anchor as he tried to deal with grief, change and emotional upheaval.
Speaking to Sohini on the YouTube show Cancelled to Crown, Rampal looked back at a period marked by loneliness and loss. The 53-year-old actor said he had already lost his father three years earlier, was drifting away from friends, and felt that everything he had worked hard to build was slipping away. He also spoke about the introspection that followed and how he tried to understand his own faults instead of blaming others.
The Dhurandhar actor said the loneliest he had ever felt was when he was not connected with himself in the way he is today. Reflecting on the end of his marriage, Rampal said it was sad, but added that love is not constant and neither are people. According to him, people keep changing, and at times, two people do not grow or change well together.
Rampal said that period may have been the most difficult of his life. "I think that was maybe the darkest phase of my life because at that point in time it was exactly the time my mum had cancer and I was losing her. I was losing everybody who was close to me. I had lost my father three years before that. I was losing friends. I was losing everything that I had worked so hard to get," he said.
Support from Gabriella Demetriades
The actor then spoke about Demetriades and the support he found in that relationship. He said he was lucky to have somebody like Gabriella in his life, describing her as a very strong anchor who was also coming from a space of darkness.
"So we both were in the storm and we had to, like I said, weather it. But it's good, we got to weather it together and then the blessings came," he added.
The actor also said blame only makes a person more miserable, because it becomes a crutch to avoid honest introspection and turns one into a victim. When a person loses everything, he said, what remains is pure introspection and the need to go within and understand what one has become, why things happened, and what one’s faults are.
Rampal and model-designer Gabriella Demetriades met in 2018 through mutual friends and later began dating. They welcomed their first son, Arik, in 2019 and Ariv in 2023.
Rampal had separated from his wife, producer and model Mehr Jesia, in 2018.
On the work front, he recently featured in Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge. He played Major Iqbal in the film, which also starred Ranveer Singh, R Madhavan, Sara Arjun, Rakesh Bedi among others.
