Asha Parekh celebrates her 79th birthday on Saturday. The actor, who was once among the highest paid film personalities, made millions of hearts beat for her but chose to remain single for life. The Dil Deke Dekho actor fell for a married man but was in no mood to be a “homewrecker” and chose to live the life the way she did. 

Talking about making her choice to remain single for life, Asha had told Verve magazine in 2019, “Staying alone was probably one of the best decisions I made. I was in love with a married man and didn’t want to be a homewrecker so, in retrospect, it was the only choice I had, according to the way I wanted to live my life. You see, time and circumstance are everything. You can’t stop what is meant to happen, and you can’t force what isn’t fated to occur. But I hope you know you’re signing up for a life of endurance.”

Asha had also said that she couldn’t let anyone dictate her in life. She added, “I would’ve never been able to take someone dictating terms to me — I was just not cut out for it.”

Another time, Asha did come close to getting married but a similar incident happened to her again. She said, “I did come very close to tying the knot once with a professor from the US. I was visiting him and we were in a cafe at 2 a.m., when he turned to me and nonchalantly said, ‘I have a girlfriend and you’ve come in the way’.”

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Asha may just be a year away from entering her 80s but all those who know her are well aware of her adventurous streak. She travels with BFFs Helen and Waheeda Rehman and the trio had made a trip to Turkey in recent times.