At 78, the Padma Shri laureate stepped into one of Bollywood's most divisive conversations of 2026 — and with six quiet words, reframed it entirely.
When social media turned on Aamir Khan for planning a third wedding at sixty, the noise was predictable — judgmental, repetitive, and entirely missing the point. What nobody expected was for Rakhee Gulzar, one of Hindi cinema's most reclusive legends, to walk into that noise and silence it. Speaking to Variety India this week, the 78-year-old actress asked a question so direct it stung: "What is wrong with getting married at 60?"
The Statement India Didn't Know It Needed
In an interaction with Variety India — timed, whether intentionally or not, in the thick of a social media pile-on — Rakhee Gulzar brought a moral authority that no hashtag could manufacture. Her argument was neither sentimental nor preachy. It was comparative and precise. She invoked Robert De Niro, who has been married twice and is currently in a relationship with Tiffany Chen, with whom he shares a daughter born in 2023 when he was well past eighty. "Marital happiness does not depend on age," she said flatly.
Then she reached into her own life. She reminded the world that legendary lyricist Gulzar was approximately forty years old when the two married on May 15, 1973 — and that their daughter, acclaimed filmmaker Meghna Gulzar, was born that same year. The subtext was unmissable: a man approaching middle age choosing love is not a scandal; it has always been the human condition.
What is wrong with getting married at 60? Happiness in marriage is not about age.— Rakhee Gulzar, speaking to Variety India, June 2026
At a Glance — Key Facts in This Story
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Who Is Gauri Spratt — And Why Does the Wedding Feel Different This Time?
Aamir Khan has been unflinchingly honest about Gauri Spratt in a way that is unusual even for a star who has long prided himself on candour. He confirmed their relationship publicly during his 60th birthday celebrations in 2025, telling the assembled media — with characteristic Aamir bluntness — "My girlfriend is prettier than Katrina Kaif. I feel like home when I am with her." The line drew laughter; the sentiment behind it drew attention.
The two, as Aamir has explained, first crossed paths twenty-five years ago and drifted apart, before being reintroduced by his cousin Nuzhat Khan roughly two years ago. Gauri Spratt, originally from Bengaluru, works in the fashion, beauty, and wellness sector and is also a mother to a young son. For the past year, the couple have been living together in Mumbai. She also works, as of recently, with Aamir Khan's production house.
When Aamir confirmed the July 5 wedding to Variety India while travelling in the United States, he was characteristically understated: "I'm currently traveling in the US. The news about the marriage is true. It's on July 5." He had earlier framed the relationship with a phrase that landed harder than any film dialogue: "I am at peace. Gauri and I are serious about each other. In my heart, I'm already married to her. To formalise our togetherness just seems like a natural progression."
Aamir Khan's Three Marriages — A Data Snapshot
Aamir Khan's Marriages — Comparative Overview
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The Backlash — And Why It Reveals More About Us Than About Him
The criticism of Aamir Khan's third wedding follows a deeply familiar script: that a man of sixty should, somehow, be finished with love. That two divorces constitute a disqualification from trying again. That remarriage at this age is vaguely embarrassing, even self-indulgent. None of these arguments, when stated plainly, hold together — but they persist because they tap into a genuine social anxiety about ageing, desire, and what we believe people in their later years are entitled to feel.
Indian cinema, interestingly, has always been more comfortable with tragic love than with quietly happy late-life love. Rakhee Gulzar's filmography — from Kabhi Kabhie to Baazigar — is largely built on sacrificed love, noble suffering, and the aesthetics of longing. For her to step forward now and say, in effect, that love that happens at forty or sixty is equally valid, carries a weight that a younger spokesperson simply could not muster.
‘What is wrong with marrying at 60?’: #RakheeGulzar on #AamirKhan-#GauriSpratt weddinghttps://t.co/saG7YF1NSH
— SCREEN (@ieEntertainment) June 8, 2026
What Rakhee's Own Story Adds to This Moment
There is a particular kind of authority that only lived experience confers. Rakhee Gulzar did not speak abstractly about late-life love — she spoke from within it. When Gulzar, then approaching forty, married the actress in 1973, it was hardly the conventional narrative. He was a lyricist and emerging director building a career; she was already one of Hindi cinema's most celebrated faces. Their marriage produced Meghna Gulzar — herself now one of India's finest filmmakers — before the couple separated a year later. The marriage, brief but real, gave Rakhee both a surname she kept and a story she invoked, quietly but decisively, in defence of a man she has worked alongside on screen.
By drawing the parallel between Gulzar-at-forty and Aamir-at-sixty, she made a broader philosophical point: that the timing of love is not within our control, and that choosing to honour it — at whatever age it arrives — is among the most human decisions a person can make.
What Happens Next
With a wedding date confirmed and neither Aamir nor Gauri inclined toward spectacle, July 5 will likely pass quietly — a small ceremony at home, family, a few close friends, and no red carpet. That restraint is, in its own way, a statement. For a star who has spent decades courting both controversy and critical acclaim, choosing to be simply happy — without performance, without a press release, without a grand Bollywood wedding — might be the most countercultural thing Aamir Khan has ever done.
Rakhee Gulzar's intervention will not silence the critics; social media rarely allows for that. But it will ensure that for every voice asking "Why at 60?", there is now a deeply credible, lived-in answer: because love, when it is real, does not check your date of birth before arriving.
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