Sania Mirza’s father opens up on tennis star’s divorce as Shoaib Malik marries Pakistani actor Sana Javed

Senior Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik has gotten married for the third time as he announced his marriage with the actor Sana Javed on social media on Saturday, January 20. The announcement naturally caused a stir as many started speculating if Malik had taken divorce from his previous wife, the Indian tennis star Sania Mirza. While several reports since 2021 have suggested that all is not well between the couple, however, there’s nothing confirmed on the dotted lines and Malik’s marriage announcement has added further fuel.

However, Sania’s father Imran Mirza confirmed that the 37-year old indeed has been divorced from the Pakistan cricketer, but it was unilateral. Speaking to the news agency PTI, Imran Mirza said, “it was a ‘khula'”, which refers to the right of a Muslim woman to unilaterally divorce her husband.

One of Malik’s friends a couple of years ago suggested that the couple had separated while another report in a Pakistan publication mentioned that Mirza and Malik weren’t on talking terms despite the duo shooting for a reality TV show together. In the last few days as well, Mirza shared a couple of cryptic posts which went viral after Malik’s announcement on Friday.

“When something disturbs the peace of your heart, let it go,” read Sania’s comment dated January 8. There was another cryptic ‘choose your hard’ post that Sania shared a couple of days ago of which one of the examples was ‘Marriage us hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard.’

Shoaib, who had been divorced from his first wife Ayesha Siddiqui in 2010 after eight years of marriage, tied the knot with Mirza. The couple, who sifted their bae to Dubai after their marriage, have a five-year-old son Izhaan Mirza Malik. While Malik has not retired formally from international cricket, Sania Mirza’s last match was in February 2023 as she bowed out at a WTA Dubai event.