Mumbai: Rekha’s life has often read like a script more dramatic than the movies she starred in. As a young girl, her dream was simple: to have a family of her own. But the reality she encountered was far from gentle. Born outside of marriage and denied by her father, she was pushed into cinema at an age when most children were still in school. By 13, she was already facing exploitation in the industry.

Love, too, brought more pain than comfort. Her closeness with a married superstar became a national obsession, a scandal rather than a romance. Hoping to escape the chaos of Mumbai, she met Delhi-based businessman Mukesh Aggarwal in 1990. Within weeks, they married. Looking back years later, she told Simi Garewal that it was neither a love match nor an arrangement—“It wasn’t love, for sure,” she admitted, adding that Mukesh remained “a stranger” to her.

For a brief moment, it appeared Rekha was finally stepping into a calmer chapter. But the illusion shattered quickly. On their honeymoon in London, she sensed a widening gap between them. Soon after, Mukesh suggested separation, and divorce papers followed. Just months later, tragedy struck—Mukesh ended his life.

What followed was merciless. Rekha, already grieving, became the target of public fury. She was labelled a “witch,” accused in whispers of being responsible for her husband’s death. Unable to bear the weight of speculation, she spoke to Filmfare in an interview bluntly titled “I Didn’t Kill Mukesh.” In it, she insisted, “We both realised that our differences were too vast to bridge. It was a mutual decision to part.”

Decades later, she would reveal how profoundly the loss altered her: “As morbid as it sounds, it was the best thing that ever happened to me, because I got a crash course in what people are all about.” In the same conversation, she described the whirlwind of grief: shock, denial, anger, self-pity, and finally, reluctant acceptance.

Her marriage to Mukesh Aggarwal lasted barely eight months. But the stigma and scrutiny that followed lingered far longer. Rekha never remarried, and the episode remains one of the darkest—and most defining—chapters of her life.

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Rekha and Mukesh Aggarwal captured in a fleeting moment of togetherness, their smiles telling a story the world never knew. Photo: X

In the later years of her career, Rekha appeared selectively in films, often choosing roles that highlighted her timeless screen presence. She was last seen in Super Nani (2014), where she played a grandmother rediscovering her self-worth, and made a brief but memorable special appearance in Shamitabh (2015). Since then, she has largely stayed away from the silver screen, with occasional appearances at award shows and public events keeping her in the limelight.