'FOR THREE YEARS, VIAAN HAS PRAYED FOR A SISTER'
For actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra, this Mother’s Day is particularly momentous. After all, it will be her first celebration with daughter, Samisha, who was born on February 15 via surrogacy. Her son Viaan turns eight this year, and the actor says she has been celebrating being a mum everyday for eight years. “You can’t be taught being a mother. It’s something I’ve begun to understand. You do things to the best of your knowledge, sensibility and ability,” she says.
While news of Samisha’s arrival was a surprise for many, Shetty calls it the best time ever. “I took 15 days off before Samisha came into the world. And fortunately for me, I got all this time to spend with her, given the lockdown. For the last few months I’ve been doing everything; from giving her massages to feeding her,” shares the actor, adding it was destiny, her son’s prayers and his desire for a baby sister that brought Samisha to their lives.
“A lot of Viaan’s friends have siblings and he always missed that. He’d ask both Raj (Kundra, husband) and me ‘Why don’t I have a sibling?’ We visit Shirdi once every year and for the past three years, he’d pray for a sister. When we got the news that we were blessed with a girl, it felt surreal,” she gushes.
Not just Viaan, Shetty, too, always wanted a second child and, more specifically, a daughter. And while the actor and her husband both grew up with sisters for siblings, the actor says even she was hoping to have a daughter. “We did try for a long time. But I had a lot of complications. I also did try for adoption but something went wrong. Surrogacy was an option which I chose and it was actually the last option. We finally had Samisha, which is a blessing,” says the 44-year-old, adding, “Having a daughter is the best thing on the planet, really. I don’t expect that my son would call me 20 years down the line every day, but I know that my daughter will,” Shetty concludes.