Om Puri's first wife Seema Kapoor reveals the late actor cheated on her when she was 3-months pregnant, offered her Rs 25,000 when their baby died: 'This ego is what...'

Om Puri’s first wife, Seema Kapoor, recently opened up about her turbulent marriage with the late actor, where she revealed how he cheated on her when she was pregnant and sent her Rs 25,000 through a secretary when their child passed away as compensation.

“Everything was going fine after our marriage, but that movie (City of Joy, where he met Nandita) turned my life upside down… My good friend Renu Saluja, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s first wife, knew about the affair. But she and Sudhir Mishra and everyone else chalked it down to a phase. They felt that he’d get back to normal after the film. I found out about the affair much later, when I was in Delhi. He called me up and told me that he was seeing someone else, and my friends said that he was just seeking attention," Seema told Siddharth Kannan.

“I returned to Mumbai, and everything felt normal. He left the city for a shoot soon afterwards, and while sifting through his stuff, I discovered love letters. I was shattered. I never wanted to divorce him, despite the affair. I wanted to mend things, because I was pregnant. He knew I was pregnant, but this was a source of insecurity for Nandita. She’d call him up in front of me," she said.

Sharing that Om wanted a reason to end this marriage, she said, “But things became overwhelming; Puri sahab would drink too much, and Nandita would make a scene. One night, I decided to leave. I was three months pregnant."

While Seema’s brother and actor Annu Kapoor wanted to take Om to court, it was settled after she got Rs 6 lakhs alimony. However, she refused Rs 25000 when Om sent her via secretary after their child passed away as compensation.

“Forget consoling me. He sent Rs 25,000 via his secretary. I turned it down, and his secretary told me, ‘This ego is what is destroying you’. But what he thought was ego was just self-respect," revealed Seema.