Marriage muddle brought us closer: Sania Mirza

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Friday, 16 Apr, 2010

NEW DELHI: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza has said her relationship with her new husband, Pakistan cricket star Shoaib Malik, emerged stronger from controversy over claims he was already married.

Mirza and Malik married on Monday after a settlement was reached with the family of Ayesha Siddiqui, an Indian woman who said she wed the former Pakistan cricket captain in 2002.

“It was a great test for our relationship and for our families and they supported us wholeheartedly ... they were there for us,” Mirza said in comments broadcast Friday by the NDTV television network.

Malik denied marrying Siddiqui, but her family said he had agreed to sign divorce papers as part of a settlement that would allow his wedding with Mirza to go ahead.

Mirza said her husband had been honest with her throughout the saga, which transfixed millions in India and Pakistan for days.

“We did not even have one argument because we were honest and I think that is why our relationship got a lot, lot stronger,” the tennis player said.

“There were a lot of things that we learnt,” said Mirza, who is currently recovering from a wrist injury that has seen her world ranking slip from 27 in 2007 to 89.

“We learned that through thick or thin... we will stick to each other and we weren’t even husband and wife then and today we are,” she added.

The couple were married in Mirza’s hometown of Hyderabad in southeast India.

Mirza has been a celebrity in India since 2005 when, aged 18, she became the first Indian woman to win a WTA Tour title.

Malik, who is serving a one-year ban on charges of indiscipline during Pakistan’s tour of Australia and New Zealand, said Mirza’s support had helped him through the dispute.

“Our parents also supported us and that is why we are here,” he said.

Malik had admitted beginning a telephone relationship with Siddiqui in 2001 after she sent him photographs – but said he later believed the pictures were of another woman.

Siddqui then lodged a complaint with police in Hyderabad, prompting officers to quiz Malik over the muddle and confiscate his passport.

Muslim elders in Hyderabad, where Siddiqui also lives, negotiated the settlement which allowed the marriage to go ahead.

“It is all in the past and now we are happy,” said Mirza.