Actress Lijomol Jose is currently basking in the success of her latest Malayalam film ‘Ponman.’ While she rarely discusses her personal life, Lijomol recently revealed in an interview with Dhanya Varma that many people are unaware that she is married.

She also opened up about the challenges she faced in her childhood and the emotional journey that shaped her life.

"My father passed away when I was just one and a half years old. At that time, my mother was three months pregnant. So, I never really had someone I could call ‘father’ during my early years. It continued that way until I was around ten. That’s when ‘Ichachan’ came into our lives. I don't like to refer to him as my stepfather,” said Lijomol.

She recalled how her younger sister was only eight years old when their mother remarried and admitted that it was hard for her to accept the change at the time.

“At that time, I found it difficult to accept my mother's second marriage. Even before that, there was a kind of distance between my mother and me. I used to sleep with my aunt. Though my mother helped me with studies after school, I never used to sleep beside her. When Ichachan came into our lives, we had to leave that house. My mother took a transfer and we moved to a new place,” she added.

The actress also opened up about the difficulties her mother’s second marriage brought within the family.

“Many from my father’s family had issues with my mother remarrying. Cousins, aunts, and uncles stopped talking to us. During vacations, we wouldn’t go anywhere. Even those cousins who were once close stopped speaking to us. That made it hard for me to accept the change,” she said.

During her teenage years, Lijomol said it became increasingly difficult to share anything with her mother. “I would always worry that if I told her something, Ichachan would come to know. My mother was busy. She did support us, but not in the way I wished she had. It’s not that she didn’t care, but she wasn’t someone who expressed love openly.”

She admitted that many unspoken issues existed between her and her mother. “It was only recently, while working on a film, that I realised the importance of open communication. I didn’t grow up with that. By the time I finished my degree, I began to understand why my mother remarried and the difficulties she went through. I can now understand both my mother and Ichachan better. They had decided not to have children together. But as a teenager, I couldn’t understand all this,” Lijomol shared.

Lijomol's most recent Malayalam release ‘Ponman,’ starring Basil Joseph, has been a commercial and critical success. In Tamil, her performance in ‘Gentlewoman’ also earned praise. She began her acting career with the Malayalam film ‘Maheshinte Prathikaaram’ and rose to national prominence with the Tamil film ‘Jai Bhim.’