Two red lines on a test kit and a blood test confirmed that she was pregnant. Nine months later, she became a mother. Somewhere in between, she married the father of her child — but the world didn’t make it easy.
After the last season of Freedom to Feed, actor and host Neha Dhupia faced backlash, with listeners targeting her personal life and criticising her for getting pregnant before marriage.
When she found out she was expecting, she decided to tie the knot with her partner. Recalling the moment, she said, “I married Angad [Bedi, actor-husband], and after six months we welcomed our daughter [Mehr]. But the biggest conversation around our wedding was, ‘How did the baby come in six months? Ye ho kaise gaya?’”
Neha Dhupia
Knowing she wasn’t the first woman to be scrutinised, Dhupia dismissed the commentary with humour. “Even now, I see stories and tags on female actors who get pregnant before marriage. I feel, at least, I’m on the same list as and Alia Bhatt. But honestly, this is ridiculous,” she raged. She added that no one had the right to dictate, question, or assume when a person should marry or have a baby. “Pregnancy is beautiful, and that’s it!” The criticism became the fuel behind her decision to launch Freedom to Feed, a platform that champions open, stigma-free conversations around motherhood.
Reflecting on her own journey into motherhood, Dhupia said she felt women needed a safe space to talk about pregnancy , postpartum recovery, and “every challenge that comes with it.” She added, “We need to normalise discussions around women’s health instead of treating them as taboo. [I wanted] to spread awareness, break myths, and remind women they are not alone in this journey. These subjects should not be swept under the rug. If I’m being trolled for talking about things that affect half the population, then so be it. I’m not going to stop.”