When Oprah Winfrey visited Aishwarya Rai-Abhishek Bachchan’s Mumbai home, but was forbidden to bring cameras because of Aaradhya. Watch video
Media mogul Oprah Winfrey has interviewed Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan on a handful of occasions, and after their first chat, she promised them that she would pay them a visit if she was ever in Mumbai. And that’s exactly what she did in 2012, months after Aishwarya had given birth to daughter Aaradhya.
In a video of the meeting that was shared on the OWN YouTube channel earlier this month, Oprah said that at the time, nobody had seen Aaradhya’s face, nor had her name been revealed to the world. And she, Oprah, got to hold her. “Just like her parents, let me tell you, she’s gorgeous, lit from within,” she said.
“When I called and said I wanted to drop by, they said, ‘Come on by, you cannot bring cameras’,” Oprah added, noting that both Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan were also present. After the meeting, Amitabh asked if Oprah would like to ride with the family to a party that they were all headed to. Hosted by Parmeshwar Godrej, the party had the who’s who of Bollywood in attendance, including Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, AR Rahman, Javed Akhtar and scores of others.
But Oprah was most impressed by the attention that the paparazzi gave the Bachchans as they made their way out of the family bungalow, Jalsa. “When those gates opened, I went ‘woah’. I’ve seen paparazzi, but I ain’t never seen nothing like this. I don’t know what that is out there,” she said, adding, “People crawling over the cars, and yelling and screaming, whoa.”
But Oprah’s most famous interaction with Aishwarya happened when the star taught Oprah how to wear a saree. Aishwarya’s first appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show came in 2005; she returned with Abhishek in 2009. The couple tied the knot in 2007, and welcomed Aaradhya in 2011.
