Celeb Cheats on Her Fiancée Weeks Before Their Wedding
The couple got engaged in September 2022.
A South Asian influencer duo, Anjali Chakra and Sufi Malik, announced their split and called off their wedding after five years together, shocking their devoted fans, according to TODAY.com
Also fueling the chatter was Malik's candidness about what caused them to break up. She acknowledged being unfaithful to Chakra shortly before the wedding was to take place.
"Hey everyone, there has been a major turn of events in my relationship with Anjali," Malik, 27, wrote in a March 24 Instagram post. "I made an unrecognizable mistake of betrayal by cheating on her a few weeks before our wedding. I've hurt her tremendously, beyond my own understanding.
"I'm owning up to my mistake and will continue to do so," Malik continued. "I understand the gravity of the situation and can only ask relentlessly for forgiveness, from Anjali and Allah."
According to Chakra, in her statement, she wished for "absolute no negativity" toward Malik, and she expressed her wish to remember how "magical" their relationship was. The 28-year-old also publicly blamed the breakup on infidelity.
Currently, the couple's combined following on Instagram stands at nearly 500,000, and their shared YouTube channel has over 135,000 subscribers, which they launched after they gained popularity in 2019. As the news of the split and cheating in a relationship spread on social media, people expressed their devastation at seeing such a prominent queer and Desi relationship end.
It was in July 2019 that the couple first gained attention on social media after photographer Sarowar Ahmed shared pictures of them posing in the rain for their one-year anniversary and promoting Borrow the Bazaary, a South Asian designer clothing rental service.
More than 42,000 people liked the tweet as they rallied around the queer South Asian couple who had the capability of crossing racial, cultural, and religious barriers. Malik is Muslim and Pakistani, while Chakra is Hindu and Indian. The couple achieved viral success, and they soon became symbols of identity, visibility, and affirmation for queer South Asians.
According to a video on their YouTube channel, the two initially connected online, where California-based Chakra was looking for other queer Desi women to chat with. Their relationship took off when Chakra traveled to New York City, where Malik is from.
A following arose quickly for the pair on social media, which led them to share much of their day-to-day lives, including their engagement in September 2022, when Malik proposed to Chakra at the Empire State Building, where they held their first date. Wedding plans were set for April 2024.
The split between the pair and the cheating scandal devastated fans after the announcement on March 24, notably since they had documented their wedding preparations together, with updates as recently as last month when they went shopping for the wedding dress.
Zuvariya Shaikh, 21, had been following the couple's relationship since early 2020, which is why the news of their breakup was "nothing short of devastating." "I was very impressed with how they were able to work past so many stigmas surrounding their relationship," Shaikh, who identifies as Desi, told TODAY.com.
"I was also equally delighted with how they had created a safe space for POC queer people... many people looked up to them and found comfort in knowing they could maybe make it through like them too." Even though the news was difficult, Shaikh told the outlet she hopes each influencer finds happiness and peace soon.
Fatima Bhatti, 21, told TODAY.com she was concerned about the geopolitical fallout of the breakup since it was interfaith, cross-cultural, and queer between two South Asian parties. "I feel like people are being homophobic and Islamophobic and dragging nations," Bhatti said. "We should respect their privacy at this point instead of spreading hate." Even though the couple appeared idyllic from the outside, the split left fans grieving the loss of a seemingly perfect couple.
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