Throwback: Why Pakistan PM and former cricket captain Imran Khan was ready for ‘arranged marriage’, Watch

By the 1980s, Imran Khan was an established name in world cricket and a ‘sex-symbol’ to boot due to his gorgeous looks and style honed with years spent graduation from Keble College in Oxford.

Pakistan Prime Minister and former cricket captain Imran Khan has been married thrice so far. (Source: Twitter)

Pakistan Prime Minister and former cricket captain Imran Khan was known for his charming looks and style almost as much as his sensational ability with both bat and ball since his international debut against England in Birmingham back in 1971. Imran went on to represent Pakistan in 88 Tests and 175 ODIs in his two-decade long career and he remains the only Pakistan captain to win the ICC 50-over World Cup – achieving this feat in 1992.

By the 1980s, Imran was an established name in world cricket and a ‘sex-symbol’ to boot due to his gorgeous looks and style honed with years spent graduation from Keble College in Oxford. In a 1984 interview with ‘60 minutes Australia’, Imran was asked if he would marry someone from outside Pakistan, since he was such a popular figure among women all over the world.

“The lady killer tag for me is totally unjustified. I have found it very difficult to live with that image,” Imran says on the ‘60 minutes Australia’ show back in 1984. “It is becoming more of a dilemma each day. The thing is I want to live in Pakistan and to find a girl from the West, who will be willing to live in Pakistan will be difficult. Maybe I can get lucky and do fall in love with someone who wants to live there, but I mean since it hasn’t happened so far, chances are quite slim. That’s why I assume I am going to have an arranged marriage because there is no other way to get married in Pakistan,” a 32-year-old is quoted as saying in the interview.

See the interview here...

This interview was taken before Imran met Jemima Goldsmith, a British journalist, screenwriter, television, film and documentary producer. Jemima and Imran were introduced to each other at a club in London in 1995.

They went on to get married in the same year with Jemima converting to Islam and moved to Lahore with husband Imran. Jemima had two sons with Imran – Sulaiman Isa (born 1996) and Kasim (born 1999).

Goldsmith supported her husband as he became more involved in his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. On June 22, 2004, it was announced that the couple had divorced ending the nine-year marriage because it was ‘difficult for Jemima to adapt to the political life of Imran Khan in Pakistan’.

After his divorce from Jemima, Imran went on to marry another British Pakistani journalist and television anchor Reham Khan in January 2015 but the marriage ended in divorce nine months later in October 2015.

The Pakistan PM went on to marry Bushra Bibi, who was in her 40s, on February 18, 2018. Imran’s third wife is known for her connection to sufism and had been Imran’s spiritual mentor. 

Amid all this, a report in the Star newspaper which was published back in the 1980s has surfaced on the social space again and it is grabbing all the attention. The report claims the former Pakistani captain almost got married to yesteryears Bollywood diva Rekha. It is believed that Rekha’s mother was quite happy with the development in her daughter’s life. The same report also claimed that Imran spent quality time with the actress in Mumbai for a month and was spotted often near the beaches.