As Pakistanis vote to elect their new government on July 25, legendary cricketer Imran Khan whose Pakistani Tehreek Insaf (PTI) may win the elections is involved in a war of words with his former and second wife Reham Khan.
While Imran Khan, 65, has described as his marriage to Reham Khan, 45, as the biggest mistake of his life, Reham Khan says he is a “hypocrite who will do anything to get power.” The two married in 2015 and divorced after 10 months. It was the second marriage for Imran who was previously married to British socialite Jemima Khan from 1995 to 2004.
A single mother of three, Reham Khan tells The Sunday Times in an interview that Imran Khan would be a disaster for Pakistan.
She says, “He’s so narcissistic and single-minded about his goal (of becoming prime minister) that he forgets the appropriate emotional response to things.”
Reham says Imran is so spoilt that he could not use a cashpoint or a microwave.
“He’s the only celebrity we have in Pakistan and expects everyone to do everything,” according to Reham Khan.
“I told him, ‘You’re like Rapunzel in the tower — you have no connection to real life.’”
As she has written in her memoirs, Reham says, “He thinks he’s God. I married him because I believed in him and his mission, but it’s all fake.’’
Reham says she met Imran first when she moved to Pakistan five years ago and interviewed him for a television channel. After a second interview, she says Imran invited her to dinner at his house on the pretext that he wanted to discuss something important with her.
She says, “I went because of the journalist in me.”
Reham Khan says when she met him at his house, he proposed marriage. “I thought he was out of his mind. Then I realised he was completely serious.”
She says Imran was persistent in pursuing her. “I wasn’t so much flattered as he pestered me to death. I guess we all want a little romance in our life.”
Imran is currently married to his spiritual mentor Bushra Maneka.
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