LAHORE (Staff Report) – Reham Khan, the ex-wife of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, demanded £35,000 from Newsweek Pakistan for writing an op-ed piece based on her marriage life with the key oppostion politician, said magazine’s Associate Director Rimmel Mohydin on Tuesday.
Mohydin said that her organisation politely declined to published the article of Imran Khan’s former wife Reham Khan after a huge payment was demanded for this. The article was later published in Britain based The Guardian.
RK’s Guardian piece was originally commissioned by @NewsweekPak. Once edited, her newly-hired press rep asked for £35K. We politely declined
— Rimmel Mohydin (@Rimmel_Mohydin) November 17, 2015
Meanwhile The Guardian’s Nosheen Iqbal, who edited Reham Khan’s piece for her organisation, said that no payment was made for the publication of this 1600-word article in British newspaper.
@Benazir_Shah @Rimmel_Mohydin @NewsweekPak Is that definitely true? I edited/ran the Reham Khan piece in the Guardian. No fee whatsoever — Nosheen Iqbal (@NosheenIqbal) November 17, 2015
The official Twitter account of Newsweek Pakistan also confirmed the article was originally written for them.
What you edited was our edit of the piece @NosheenIqbal @Benazir_Shah @Rimmel_Mohydin
— Newsweek Pakistan (@NewsweekPak) November 17, 2015
Reham Khan also dismissed the reports of getting paid for any interview or publication.
I have not been paid for any article or interview. @smile_of_devil @DrAwab @Rimmel_Mohydin @NewsweekPak
— Reham Khan (@RehamKhan1) November 17, 2015
In the article, the TV anchor said it was not true that Imran Khan’s sisters pushed him to divorce me. We just could not establish a strong marriage bond between us and hence we broke away in just ten months, she added.
Reham Khan said that only she and her husband were responsible for their separation, after hurling allegations of black magic and in-house conspiracy against her.
She also narrated her time as the wife of Pakistan’s legendary cricketer and politician in a very emotional way.
Following my marriage with Imran Khan the whole country had become just like my in-laws, Reham noted. She said everybody was openly discussing and interfering with our private lives in Pakistan.
While discussing her ambition to join politics, she said that her husband’s party never accepted him and several key leaders ran campaign against me saying that they don’t want to indulge into party matters.
I had decided to stay out of party’s affairs in August this year and my husband also agreed with me, she said.
Earlier in“Why Imran Divorced Me” interview with The Sunday Times, Reham Khan said that she thought Imran Khan was in love with her but it was not true and she was left defenseless against the media criticism.
Reham Khan revealed that her marriage with him was not registered anywhere in Pakistan or Britain.
“Imran Khan did not give me my marriage ring or bangles even,” Reham has been quoted saying.
Nobody from Imran Khan’s political party, PTI, or his family took charge to explain my position in that situation, she complained.
Instead I was told to ignore the smear campaign by Pakistani media while Imran Khan thought all this will automatically come to an end, she added.
When asked about her relationship with Imran’s family, Reham told her husband’s sisters had categorically stated that they are against our marriage. They said I was not enough good to be their brother’s wife and they never welcomed me as his wife even after marriage, she explained.
Meanwhile my own brother was also not happy at my marriage with Imran Khan and I had to convince him for this, she said.
Commenting about her willingness to take over Imran Khan’s political party, the TV anchor said party’s senior leadership had told Imran Khan that they were uneasy in working with me. She further added that one of close aides of Imran Khan even said that he only wanted me to cook in the kitchen.
Dismissing the rumors of hitting her husband and not allowing his pet dogs in bedroom, Reham Khan said that her relationship with Imran Khan was much troubled in the last month of marriage at which they decided to part their ways finally.
Referring to her ‘black magic’ tweets, Reham said that I had found some suspicious papers of magical spells from Bani Gala residence. She however avoided telling further details about the person behind this.
I will be back in Pakistan very soon and resume my job as TV journalist, she said in answer to a question about her future plan.
Imran Khan, 62, married Reham Khan, 41, in January this year, after weeks long denial to claims of senior journalist Arif Nizami that said the couple was set to marry.
The couple formally tied knot in Islamabad and celebrated their valima at Khan’s residence in Bani Gala after months of speculation about secret marriage.
Reham, divorced mother-of-three, earlier lived in Britain and was associated with BBC as a weather host.
Imran Khan married to Jemima Goldsmith in May 1995. Jemima was a British writer and activist. They have two sons, Sulaiman Isa Khan and Qasim Khan. The marriage ended in divorce in 2004.
