From her turbulent marriage to late televangelist Aamir Liaquat Hussain, and the subsequent public scrutiny, Pakistani TV actress Syeda Tuba Anwar had remained tight-lipped about her side of the story until recently when she opened up about her journey from behind the camera lens to the limelight.
Anwar was subjected to death threats after marrying the TV anchor and called a gold-digger which didn’t stop even after Hussain’s death. As she dished out details in an interview with The Kult, Anwar revealed how the online hate affected her.
Anwar has often been accused of using her marriage to Aamir Liaquat to get famous. The reason why she never gave cleared the air is because the process had been overwhelming, and too much to take in.
Talking about how her marriage to her ex-spouse became the center of attention, Anwar suggested “I was getting into a relationship but I never thought about it from the public’s point of view. I was very young, and even naive, at that time and I didn’t have the right kind of exposure. I wasn’t ready for all the chaos. I didn’t even announce the news, it was leaked. We wanted to announce the news. Not that it was a secret, but whoever gets married, it should be their decision to determine when to tell people. We were both not ready.”
“When it all started, I was baffled and couldn’t make sense of why people are hating me so much. I couldn’t process the abuse that I was getting. It became so worse that at one point, I started getting death threats and rape threats. Men, women, everyone was just picking on anything and everything,” she said adding that the abuse wasn’t just limited online but also offline by “people she was associated with.”
Schooling those who pitch unsolicited advice/opinions, Anwar suggested, “Everything I am today, I have worked hard for it and I won’t let people tell me otherwise.”
Addressing those who labeled the Bharaas starlet as a ‘gold-digger,’ Anwar said, “I am educated, young, and hail from a supportive, stable family of intellectuals. I don’t need anyone to use as a ladder. It’s a disgusting thing to say to someone. If I wasn’t capable or talented enough, then it would’ve been another thing. My father made me travel the world with him. I’ve four sisters, we’re all thriving.”
“There was never a lack of money or love growing up. I would’ve been a gold digger if I took anything from him when leaving. I took nothing,” she exclaimed adding that all YouTube videos about her house and cars are simply “clickbait.”
Concluding the discussion of her marriage, the Yeh Ishq Samajh Na Aaye actress said: “If I wanted to marry for money or for television, I didn’t have to get married in real life. It would’ve happened other ways too. My dignity matters to me and I chose that person in that time. When you share food and your life with someone, you have to keep their respect intact. And that’s what I did. I never wanted to be consumed with that hate for anyone.”
On the work front, Anwar was recently seen in Bichoo, Bharaas, and Yeh Ishq Samajh Na Aaye.
WATCH – Tuba Anwar gets candid about marriage and future plans
