The Story of Actress Aishwarya Rai Who Found Happiness in Motherhood, and Decided Not to Care About Body Shaming

It’s probably impossible to find someone in Bollywood who doesn’t know actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Her style is copied by many Indian girls, and fans have created more than 17,000 websites about her. According to Forbes, in 2001, Rai was among the top 5 best movie stars of India. Moreover, she became the first Indian actress who was invited to be part of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival.

CHEERY readers might think that the actress’s life looks like a fairy tale — she’s actively doing movies, she’s found her soulmate, and she’s raising a beautiful daughter. But, in fact, Aishwarya Rai has been through serious challenges on her path to happiness.

Childhood and youth: from an architect to a model

The future Bollywood star was born into a family that had nothing to do with acting. And Aishwarya Rai had planned to get a normal profession. She was into zoology when she was at school, and then she decided she would become a doctor.

But in 9th grade, she started appearing in commercials. The first product she promoted was pencils for exams. Later, Rai appeared in a Pepsi commercial with a popular Indian actor, Aamir Khan.

After school, when it was time to choose a profession, the girl decided to enter an academy of architecture. But she soon dropped out and decided to become a professional model. In her youth, she won an international supermodel competition and was on the pages of American Vogue.

In 1994, Aishwarya Rai took part in Miss India and won second place. The young model won several titles, such as Miss India World, Miss Catwalk, Miss Miraculous, Miss Photogenic, Miss Perfect Ten, and Miss Popular.

After that, she represented India at the Miss World in Sun City, where she won the crown again and got the title of Miss World Continental Queen of Beauty − Asia and Oceania.

Start of her career and international recognition

Soon after that, the young woman was noticed by Bollywood directors, and in 1997, her debut film Iruvar was released. After that, Rai’s career started going uphill: from 1997 to 2004, she did more than 20 Indian movies.

She also got international recognition in 2004 for the lead role in Bride & Prejudice, which is a Bollywood-style adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The way she portrayed Elizabeth Bennet, who was earlier played by Jennifer Ehle and Keira Knightley, left nobody indifferent: she was criticized and she was called incredibly attractive.

Since then, Aishwarya Rai has had a lot of roles in Hollywood movies. For example, you might have seen her in The Pink Panther 2 as Sonia Solandres.

Personal life: fights and break-ups

While her career was developing, her personal life wasn’t very successful. In 1999, Rai started dating Bollywood actor Salman Khan. Their feelings first appeared on the set of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

This relationship lasted 3 years, and the break-up was hard and was criticized quite a lot by the press. Many fans of these celebrities still can’t get over the fact they broke up. The fans even made a fake video where the actors make up and shake each other’s hands.

After breaking up with Khan, Rai had a relationship with Vivek Oberoi, another popular Indian actor and winner of many movie awards.

They fell in love with each other on the set of Kyun! Ho Gaya Na..., but the relationship only lasted for a couple of years.

Meeting her future husband and finally becoming happy

Despite her beauty and popularity, the actress only became happy after the age of 30. In 2006, when she was working on Dhoom 2, she started dating her colleague Abhishek Bachchan. At the beginning of the following year, they announced their engagement.

Everyone loved this couple. Soon after the wedding, Aishwarya and Abhishek were invited to the Cannes Film Festival, and then to The Oprah Winfrey Show. The Indian newlyweds became just as popular as other Hollywood couples, such as Brangelina.

Giving birth to a daughter and dealing with hate

In 2011, they had a daughter and they named her Aaradhya. In the beginning, the press called the girl Beti B because the parents couldn’t decide how to name her for 4 months. The actress was already 38, and her husband was 35. They weren’t very young parents, but they were happy.

It seemed that Aishwarya Rai’s life was perfect: she was a successful movie actress, was recognized worldwide, had millions of fans, and a loving family. But that was when the hardest stage of her life started. The actress had to deal with haters that started criticizing her body, which had changed after labor.

At first, the fans supported the actress’s decision to care about her daughter and accept her body. But soon, everything changed, and Aishwarya was heavily criticized — she was compared to an elephant, and people were saying that her marriage was on the rocks.

But it wasn’t true. Abhishek Bachchan didn’t leave Rai just because her weight increased. On the contrary, he kept telling her how much he loved her.

The actor congratulated his wife and daughter on their birthdays publicly. He once wrote, “A child’s birthday cannot be complete without appreciating her mother. For giving birth to her, for loving her, taking care of her, and basically just being a Wonder Woman! Thank you for giving me the greatest gift ever... Our daughter!”

Family happiness despite all the rumors and predictions

Nowadays, both actors continue their movie careers and actively take part in charity projects. But, before returning to movies after the time she spent with her daughter, Aishwarya told the press, “My priority is still my family and my child.”

Both Aishwarya and Abhishek cherish their family values. There are a lot of posts on their Instagram pages about loving their parents, each other, and their daughter.

They call their daughter their little princess and share a lot of photos of her. Abhishek says, “Thanks to this angel for making me a father and making me realize what it takes to do what a father needs to do.” Aishwarya adds, “You are the reason I breathe, my darling Aaradhya. You are my life, my soul. I love you unconditionally.”

Aishwarya Rai managed to lose weight, but the actress realized that viewers’ love can be quite fickle. So, today, she says that all mothers should care about their children and their own health, not about how they look and what others think.

And one week after a video criticizing the body of Aishwarya was released, the star was invited to the Cannes Film Festival, she was congratulated on having a baby, and was named the most beautiful woman in the world.

What is more important for you: family or work? What would you do if you needed to take a break from your career to have a baby?