Miscarriages, IVFs, surrogacy failures: Shahid's stepfather shares his parenthood journey
Shahid Kapoor's stepfather Rajesh Khattar has become a dad again. He and wife Vandana Sajnani welcomed a baby boy recently, 11 years after their marriage. While it was a special moment for the new parents, Rajesh revealed that their journey to parenthood was "anything but smooth". He also mentioned that the baby was born three-months premature and was put in NICU for two months.
Notably, the newborn baby isn't Rajesh's first child. He also has a son Ishaan Khattar with ex-wife Neelima Azeem. Talking about his journey to fatherhood again, Rajesh said, "For me, becoming a father at 50-plus was another challenge, but then, I'm neither the first one nor the last in this category. I'm reliving fatherhood except that the first time, I was a lot younger."
In his recent interaction with BT, Rajesh revealed that Vandana was pregnant with twins. However, during the third month of her pregnancy, she was diagnosed with a medical condition. "A few months later, it came to light that the growth of one of our babies was slow and finally, we lost him," said Rajesh. However, the other baby was saved by delivering him immediately.
He further mentioned that the surgery didn't go smooth for Vandana who took a long time to heal. Besides, their premature baby was also put in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). "The mother and son struggled throughout the journey, and finally, our little Krishna arrived home on Janmashtami. This is the most beautiful gift bestowed on us by the God," Rajesh added.
Reportedly, Vandana, who is also an actress and theater producer, had struggled a lot to become a mother and adopted several methods of pregnancy. "After a lot of hardships - three miscarriages, three IUI (Intrauterine Insemination) failures, three IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) failures and three surrogacy failures - over the last 11 years, we have reached here," the new mommy recalled.
Besides, losing one of her babies was certainly a big blow to the lady- both emotionally and physically. "Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Also, my condition worsened and I had to stay in the hospital for another month because something went wrong with the surgery and I had a wound infection. Everything took a toll on me," Vandana was quoted saying.
However, all the pain and trauma went away after their "miracle baby" survived. The couple has named the child Vanraj Krishna Khattar, which is an amalgamation of Rajesh and Vandana's name. The baby is home now, and Rajesh and Vandana are busy looking after the little munchkin. "We are very cautious because being a preterm baby, he still needs utmost care," the actor asserted.
