Shefali Shah has just dropped her first-ever memoir, The Audacity of Being, and we sat down with the actor to talk about the book, her life, and the chapters she has chosen to revisit. Among them is a chapter about her first marriage, which Shefali has written about candidly while consciously choosing not to get into the details of what went wrong.
In our conversation, Shefali also opened up about a cryptic social media post shared by her former husband, actor Harsh Chhaya, in December 2025, which resurfaced online this year. While the post did not name the couple, it was interpreted by many online as a reference to their marriage.
In the now-deleted Facebook post, Harsh Chhaya had written about an actor couple who got divorced 25 to 30 years ago and whose separation had once been widely discussed. He wrote about one person avoiding talking about the past and “passing it off as done and dusted”, while suggesting that the other continued to carry the emotional impact of the marriage. The post also referred to the actor’s current husband, a producer.
Shefali and Harsh Chhaya were married for around six years before separating in 2000. Shefali is now married to filmmaker-producer Vipul Shah. In her memoir, she acknowledges that her first marriage was not the best phase of her life, but does not name her former husband or get into the “nitty-gritties” of the relationship.
Speaking about the post, Shefali said she was initially unaware of it until someone told her about it.
Once she was told what had been written, Shefali said she went into a “retrospect zone” and began wondering whether she herself had ever spoken about her first marriage in interviews.
“Because it’s really not a part of my life anymore. It’s not even important to mention. I mean, it’s like, whatever, you know? And I don’t find it interesting to harp on something that’s happened a hundred years ago,” she said.
She explained exactly how she felt about the post. “I said, where is this coming from? And in fact, I asked my team, have I said that in any of my interviews?” She added, “I know for sure I don’t mention the person because it’s really not worth it. Would I sit and mention a stranger? I wouldn’t, right? It’s like that.”
Shefali also said she saw no reason to respond with a “no comment”. “Why would I say no comments? In fact, that’s gonna put into more speculation. And it’s not like a national secret,” she said.
She believes she has been respectful of the subject in her memoir.
“Even in the chapter, when you read it, I think I have been very respectful of the whole thing. I’m not going to deny that it wasn’t the best,” she said.
Shefali recalled that a friend later sent her a clip of the post, and her reaction was, “What the hell?” But given that the post was recent, she decided there was little she could do about it.
She also went back to her team to check whether she had said anything that could have triggered the discussion. “Meera and Ria both sit in all my interviews,” she said, explaining that they help “pick a red flag” because, as Shefali admits, “I have no filters.”
Ultimately, her response to the resurfaced controversy was simple: “But I was like, take it. What can you do?”
For Shefali, the memoir appears to reflect the same approach. She has acknowledged a difficult chapter of her life without denying it, but has chosen to leave its finer details in the past.
ALSO READ: ‘Nobody’s Prepared For A Divorce’: Shefali Shah Reflects On First Marriage With Harsh Chhaya
