By Mahlia Lone

Talk about a perfect life—Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are blond, beautiful, famous and successful movie stars, with two lovely daughters and a picture perfect house. They live an idyllic life full of sweetness, sunshine and smiles. Everything is a choice and, according to Ryan, this is a life that Blake has created for her family. Let’s see how she is achieving her dream

Born Blake Ellender Brown in 1987 in Tarzana, Los Angeles to Ernie Lively (né Ernest Wilson Brown, Jr.) an actor, and his wife, Elaine, the good looking actress has an older brother, Eric, and half-siblings, Lori, Robyn and Jason, all of whom work in the entertainment industry. A beautiful child of English, Irish, German and a trace of Cherokee ancestry, she was cherubic with lovely golden ringlets. Her parents took her with them to acting classes that they taught instead of leaving her with a babysitter, where Blake said she picked up the “drills” of acting and gained confidence. At only 10 years of age, she appeared in the film Sandman (1998) directed by her father. Since showbiz was a family business, Blake was not particularly enamored by it and dreamt of attending Stanford University. Teenaged Blake had a crush on fellow child star Kelly Blatz with whom she was childhood pals. Lively said that when they started filming the teen horror flick Simon Says in 2004, “he finally came around” and the two started dating. He was her first boyfriend.

During the summer between Blake’s junior and senior years at Burbank High School, her brother Eric asked his agent to send Blake on auditions, which is how she was cast in the coming of age movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) alongside Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel and America Ferrera. Blake caught the eye in the film and was nominated for a Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Breakout – Female. Back in school, she became the senior class president, a cheerleader, and a member of the championship choir.

It was when she was cast as the poor little rich girl Serena van der Woodsen in the hit teen series Gossip Girl based on the bestseller book series by Cecily von Ziegesar that Lively became a household name the world over. The mega successful show ran from 2007 till 2012. During the summer hiatus of 2008, Blake reprised her role in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 and by this time she had become fast friends with the actresses.

“I don’t want to date someone just to date someone,” Lively said in an interview for Cosmopolitan magazine that year. “I want to be with a guy who’s going to better my quality of life, better me.” She outed her relationship with her GG costar Penn Badgley at the 2008 Met Gala and continued seeing him for the next three years.

Very close to her family, Blake said that on holidays, like Christmas Day, all the siblings would stay in bed together. “Somehow we just spend seven hours a day all together just chatting and it’s really nice to have that time, because it’s rare that we get together for such a nice chunk of time. We never leave the house. We’re together all day whether we’re making gingerbread houses, or baking cookies, or sitting around and watching movies all piled up.”

Inordinately fond of food and cooking, Blake called Martha Stewart her “idol” as well as being a fan of Nigella Lawson, a TV chef. Lively spent evenings working as a pastry chef at the renowned Per Se in New York City and took cookery classes wherever she travelled as a way of immersing herself in the local culture, including a tailor-made workshop at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Her ambition was to become a restaurateur and also “hoped one day to have an interior decorating company,” due to her love of “antiques, colours and textures and layering things.” Even though her GG role that she became synonymous with was of a spoilt rich girl, she was actually much more family oriented and more interested in perfecting her domestic arts rather than painting the town red like other celebrities her age. After GG ended, Blake was cast in the superhero movie Green Lantern starring Hollywood heartthrob Ryan Reynolds.

Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born in 1976, in Vancouver, British Columbia the youngest of four brothers to James Chester “Jim” Reynolds, a food wholesaler, and Tammy, a sales assistant. The handsome blond actor is of Irish descent and was raised a Roman Catholic. His older brother became police officers, while Ryan began his showbiz career with a stint in 1991 in the Canadian teen soap Hillside. He graduated from Kitsilano Secondary School in 1994, but dropped out of Kwantlen Polytechnic University in 1996 and moved to Hollywood. His breakout role was in the hit show Sabrina the Teenage Witch with teen queen Melissa Joan Hart.

Reynolds’ next big role came in the sitcom Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (1998-2001). He had a relationship with the show’s star Traylor Howard for two years even though she was a decade older than him; then he moved on to Kristen Johnston, also a TV star nearly a decade older; till he finally started dating Rachael Leigh Cook, an actress closer to his own age.

Ryan made the jump to the big screen in the hit National Lampoon comedy Van Wilder (2002). At the same time, he started his first serious relationship with popular Canadian singer/songwriter Alanis Morisette. The couple spent five years together from 2002 to 2007 and the two were even engaged for the three last years. Morrisette wrote songs about her heartbreak after their breakup on her album Flavors of Entanglement, especially the track Torch that was all about her former fiancé. During this relationship, Reynolds, known mostly for his comedic roles till now, expanded his acting range. He built up his body for an action role in the 2004 film Blade: Trinity. And in George Lutz’s 2005 remake of the 1979 horror film The Amityville Horror, Reynolds traversed the horror genre as well. Continuing to play against type, he played an FBI agent alongside Ray Liotta in the 2006 crime action film Smokin’ Aces, and in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) he worked in a superhero film.

 

“I’ve had four boyfriends in my whole life. I’ve never been with anyone that’s not a boyfriend. If I spend time with a man, it’s because there’s somebody that I know well who has been a friend for a while”
—Blake lively

In 2008, Ryan married sex symbol Scarlett Johanssen, his girlfriend for a year, but the marriage only lasted for three years with Scarlett calling it quits citing her monogamy issues and hinting at his insecurity with her success. In the meantime, Reynolds had a big summer hit in The Proposal (2009) opposite established box office star Sandra Bullock. Not only did he effortlessly hold his own against the senior actress, but their on screen chemistry was hot, and the two ended up having a fling  after his marriage had irrrvocably broken down.

When the movie’s stars Lively and Reynolds made their debut as Green Lantern costars at 2010 Comic-Con at the San Diego Convention Center, he was still married to Scarlett, and she was still dating Badgley, but they had clearly established a good rapport with each other. With Green Lantern Reynolds was expected to become an A-list leading man but when the $200 million superhero movie hit theatres, it was a disappointment for critics and audiences alike. It just barely broke even. By the end of the year, the two stars were both single. During next year’s WonderCon press conference the two stars were seen giggling and enjoying each other’s company, but they were only friends at this time. Ryan told Details, “I’m very happy not to be in a relationship right now. That’s okay. I didn’t plan on it, that’s for sure . . . but that’s okay. I’ve been in relationships pretty much since high school….Some people look at that as a good thing. I think wiser people might see that as a house of cards….Anyone that gets divorced goes through a lot of pain, but you come out of it….I’m not out of it yet. At all.”

Men usually seek solace when experiencing pain in the arms of the next willing woman and Reynolds followed up his fling with Sandra with two more flings that year, one with German model Agnes Fischer and the next South African glamazon star Charlize Theron as salve to his ego and pain.

Meanwhile, Lively was concentrating on her career and snagged a lucrative and high profile campaign as the face of the new Gucci fragrance, Gucci Premiere. And she was the arm candy of none other than Leonardo DiCaprio who squired her around the South of France during the summer of 2011. But he is not one to settle down or even stay with any one woman for long, regardless of how good looking or sweet she may be.

Back Stateside, Reynolds and Lively started spending more time together.  He later reminisced on Entertainment Weekly’s SiriusXM show, “We were buddies then. I remember it was funny because for about a year after Green Lantern had come and gone and all that stuff we were both single,” he said. “We went on a double date. She was on a date with another guy and I was on a date with another girl. That was the most awkward date for their respective probably because we were just like fireworks coming across (laughing). It was weird at first but we were buddies for a long time. I think it’s the best way to have a relationship is to start as friends.”

Soon rumors were rife that the Green Lantern costars’ were hooking up after they were seen at multiple spots together fall of 2011, and she was photographed leaving his Boston apartment early one morning. In a later interview with GQ magazine, he said, “I mean, I always imagined that would happen, and then it happened. Every idiotic Hallmark-card cliché is true.” Ryan said he knew Blake was “The One” not when they first met but after they had sex on their first date. Ryan explained that he asked the actress to dance in an empty restaurant, on a really late evening in Tribeca and knew instantly. He said: ‘It was just one of those moments where halfway through the dance, it was like, ‘Oh, I think I just crossed a line.’ And then I walked her home. And, uh, you know, I don’t really need to go into what happened after that.”

Speaking about the same date to Entertainment Weekly, Blake said: “That date went well for him. I don’t know about fireworks for me. No, we were such good friends for so long and we both got to know each other as friends so when we were both single, we were still trying to find each other’s perfect date—‘Oh, who would be good for you?’

First day on the set of Green Lantern, Blake arrived with a batch of freshly baked cupcakes that Ryan devoured

We’d sit around being like, ‘Oh jeez, do you know anyone?’ And it didn’t click for, I mean, a good year and a half. Like, ‘Oh hey, wait, hold on. We could date!’”

Lively paid him a visit him on the set of his movie R.I.P.D., a 3D supernatural action comedy film starring Jeff Bridges, in Boston on his birthday in October with a big bouquet of balloons tied to her dog Baxter as a cute surprise. Soon they became inseparable; the new couple spent the Christmas holidays with Reynolds’ family in Vancouver where they were spotted holding hands while walking through the Granville Island Public Market. In January 2012, they were seen going for an incognito stroll in New Orleans, La. In the summer, they were back in British Columbia, visiting the Ferry Terminal in Nanaimo.

Reynold’s back to back flings after his marraige disentigrated

“They are very much in love,” a source close to the couple reportedly told press. “They rarely travel without one another.”

“I’ve been with very few people. If I’m not with somebody who really excites or inspires me, then I’d rather be by myself,” Lively told Marie Claire. “To be around me, you must love food or I’m the most obnoxious person you’ve ever met. I’m in a big cooking phase. That’s all I’ll talk about.”

Perhaps in anticipation of putting down roots, Lively sold her West Village apartment and bought a $2.3 million country style house in Bedford, in upstate NY with 1.7 acres of garden, a wood panelled living room, formal dining room, library and sun porch. “They keep to themselves,” said a neighbor. “They frequent the Bedford Hardware store for home improvement goods, buy groceries and go to restaurants in the area, but aren’t very talkative to the locals. They eat out a lot, and are polite, but don’t make friends with people there. The pair just want to be left alone in their home.”

Following a romantic trip to Venice, the couple tied the knot in a super secret ceremony at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (where The Notebook was filmed) on Sept. 9th 2012 after only a year of dating They had not even announced their engagement before getting married. The bride, 25, wore a silk tulle Marchesa ball gown with rose gold embroidery and crystals while the bridegroom, 36, was in a Burberry suit. Only 35 guests were in attendance including her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants costars — America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel. The ceremony was held in a rustic barn and the reception was held in a white tent at the plantation, while Blake’s good friend, British singer Florence Welch serenaded the newlyweds with three songs and Bette Midler performed as well. Blake’s elder half-sister, also an actress, Robyn Lively recreated her Teen Witch dance from the late ‘80s film classic that she had appeard in. No one, not even the performers or any guests were allowed to bring in phones and everyone was sworn to utter secrecy. Even after the wedding, no pictures were released except for those of certain details, like the bouquet, cake and dessert table, which were published in Martha Steward Living magazine. The vanilla-and-sour-cream wedding cake with peach-apricot preserves and Earl Grey-milk chocolate butter cream was made by Maggie Austin Cake in Alexandria, Virginia. Among the deserts were s’mores, espresso beans, blueberry cheesecake tartlets and lemon meringue tartlets, as well as fruit jellies and mini strawberry cupcakes.

The morning after, the couple were pictured sharing a kiss in Charleston as the bride displayed her stunning pink diamond engagement ring designed by celebrity jeweller Lorraine Schwartz, featuring a large center stone supported by a band of small diamonds. “Ryan chose Lorraine Schwartz to help him find a flawless, light pink oval diamond. They worked together to design a custom setting in rose gold and pave diamonds with a nod to deco,” a spokesperson for the jeweller said. The bride’s rose gold wedding ring, also by Schwartz, has a series of delicate diamonds to complements the engagement sparkler.

Lively settled down to domesticity well, preferring to cook at home rather than head out to expensive restaurants. “I use a lot of fresh ingredients, which really does make a huge difference. It’s easier to be healthy when eating things that are fresh, because they are often fruits and vegetables,” she said while filming a segment making Puff Pastry for Vogue.com. Her go-to recipes are sausage and brie puff pastry and rotisserie chicken.

“Right now, I’m so peaceful. I’ve never been happier in my life. He treats me like a queen,” announced newly wed Blake

Even Martha Steward called her “a groovy cook.”

The newlyweds took a romantic trip to Paris that winter. An eyewitness told Us magazine “They were kissing the entire time. The locals said hello, but they were only interested in each other.”

Always known for her unerring fashion sense, Blake’s sartorial style climbed a notch even higher after her wedding. She said, “It’s (fashion) such a passion of mine. That’s the reason I don’t have a stylist, not because I think I can do it better than any of these people, but because I just love it so much that it would be like handing over something.”

Lively’s career chart continued to progress and, in 2013, the blond actress scored her first major makeup campaign as the new face of L’Oreal, The next year she launched a lifestyle digital magazine and e-commerce website with artisanal hand-made one-of-a-kind items that she personally selected called Preserve. The products she was hawking were too expensive for the average consumer. The site never really took off and sensibly she shut it down after only a year, claiming that she had launched it before it was ready and she would redo it and relaunch it later.

Lively returned to her lucrative film career and started filming for the The Age of Adaline with Harrison Ford in a cameo role. She plays a woman who “stops aging after recovering from a near-fatal accident,” but the film was only a modest success.

The Reynolds made a string of glamorous, high profile appearances that garnered them much publicity.  First stop was at the 2014 Met Gala. However, the genetically blessed married couple skipped the after parties to eat hot fudge sundaes with peanut butter sauce at NYC hot spot Serendipity despite being all glammed up. Right after they graced the red carpet of the 67th Cannes Film Festival to attend the screening of Canadian independent film Captives, starring Ryan Reynolds

Ryan declared on The Late Show With David Letterman, “I’m not one for vomiting declarations of sentiment out across the airwaves, but when we had that baby, I fell more in love with my wife than I’d ever been in my entire life. I couldn’t even believe it….I used to say to (Blake), ‘I would take a bullet for you. I could never love anything as much as I love you.’ And the second I looked in that baby’s eyes, I knew in that exact moment that if we were ever under attack, I would use my wife as a human shield to protect that baby.”

Lively shared her marital bliss with Marie Claire , “We’ve never gone a week without seeing each other. He’s my best, best friend. If I could spit out a litter of kids, I would.”

And she did, having her first, a daughter who looks just like her who they named James, on Dec 16th 2014. The wary couple kept the birth under wraps for weeks before any public announcement was made.

On Valentine’s Day 2015, Ryan said, “One of the most common things in the world is making out, having a couple of drinks, and then doing it, and then having a baby. I was perfectly sober for this one though. I gotta say,” he joked. “It’s amazing. I just always marvel how common it is and yet how profound it is. And I always laugh because you know celebrities you always cringe when they talk about their kids. Like ‘my child is the only one that has ever exited a womb out, ever. Amid his laughter he continued, “Well, a lot of people have done this, so you always want to temper it with a little of self-effacement. But I love it. I truly worship that kid. It’s terrible. She has me so far wrapped around her finger it’s dumb. She says ‘dada’ and I will walk through a cement wall to get to her.”

“I was recently asked how my style has changed since I got married, as if I was living under some sort of dictatorship. I’m very lucky to be with someone who has better taste than me. We influence each other in different ways”

Still a working actress, Blake accepted the challenge of filming the movie The Shallows mostly in a bikini after the birth. Lively had been known for her incredible 5’10” tall and curvaceous but slim body before pregnancy. To get fit for her upcoming role, Blake hired a personal trainer who made her exercise for 90 minutes each day. Her circuit training regime included squats, lunges, push-ups and planking. The exercise did more for her than lose the baby weight she’d gained. She said, “I worked out with an amazing trainer Don Saladino. He kicked my butt. It was also eight months after having a baby so my body was already completely different than what it normally was. Not just aesthetically but also your muscles are different, your body, everything is just shifted and changed.”

Then speaking about the actual intense filming, she told E! News: “It was really crazy. But it was also nice to have that motivation because I wouldn’t have done that. I wouldn’t have gotten in that kind of shape. It was like training for a marathon, but a marathon is one day. This was six weeks straight, six-day weeks, no lunch breaks, thirteen-hour days, four-foot waves at all times. By the time I was done with the movie…I had muscles that I had never had before.” In the film, Lively has absolutely flat abs and there is not an inch of fat or loose skin anywhere.

Then in 2016, Reynolds finally hit the big time when Deadpool, the eighth installment of the X-Men film series, was released having been in inception since 2004.  After a new type of viral marketing campaign, the film earned over $783 million dollars, becoming the overall highest-grossing R-rated film as well as the highest grossing X-Men film to date. Script writer Rhett Reese described Reynolds’ role being instrumental in ensuring the success of the movie by being “the keeper of the Deadpool flame for many years … if we ever do something that is off the Deadpool path, or if it doesn’t feel like Deadpool, he catches it.” His tenacity paid off and finally Ryan had a superhero franchise of his own, with a sequel announced after the movie’s mega success.

“Everything we do in life we do together. I get to share my life with the person he’s become, and we get to grow from there”
—blake

The same year, Blake gave birth to their second daughter Ines. After having a second child, Ryan admitted that parenting gives him anxiety, because he now finds he is constantly in a rush and has to cram things into short bursts of time, “I think you’re just more desperate in everything you do, ‘cause you’re like, ‘I’ve got 10 minutes to do this, and then I gotta get home. There’s just no time anymore, so you’re hardened by it. Anxiety, I think, that’s probably it.” He said that earlier he didn’t think he would make a good dad because of his not having had a good relationship with his own father, but Blake assured him he would and patiently schooled him in becoming a hands on dad, changing diapers and cleaning spit up.

On December 15th  2016, Reynolds received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard. His beautiful wife, toddler daughter and new baby were all there with him to share in his honour. In another landmark, Blake took Ryan to Japanese restaurant O Ya in NYC to celebrate his  40th birthday.  Blake, in a rare public declaration paid tribute to her husband, posting on Insta, “We fell in love at your restaurant in Boston. We stay in love at your restaurant in NY. Thank you for the BEST food and memories!” In the photo, Reynolds holds a picture of the two, making the same pose, in a shot taken five years prior to this.

During this year’s Met Gala, Humans of New York shared Ryan Reynolds’ heartfelt message about his other half on. Ryan was quoted gushing about some of Blake’s best qualities, “She always responds with empathy. She meets anger with empathy. She meets hate with empathy. She’ll take the time to imagine what happened to a person when they were five or six years old.” He added that she had made him a more empathetic person by helping him strengthen his relationship with his dad. “I had a very fractured relationship with my father. Before he died, she made me remember things I didn’t want to remember. She made me remember the good times.”

HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CA, USA – DECEMBER 15: Actor Ryan Reynolds and wife/actress Blake Lively and daughter James Reynolds and newly born daughter attend a ceremony honoring Ryan Reynolds with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – Dedication of the 2,596th star on the Walk of Fame in the category of Motion Pictures on December 15, 2015 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States. (Photo by Xavier Collin/Image Press/Splash News)

Pictured: James Reynolds, Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively
Ref: SPL1412004 151216

Picture by: Xavier Collin/Image Press/Splash

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While Blake told USA Today: “We’ve both given up projects that we really love because we can’t keep our family together. People often think their career is something they have to chase and maintain, but for us, we said, ‘Let’s always chase and maintain our personal life.’ This is a career that’s like the stock market: You’ve got to stay hot while you’re hot. But your family, that’s the real thing that gives you security and success and happiness.” And that is the secret to her success.

By Mahlia Lone

The Billionaire & the Bollywood Star

Nivrutti Munim was born in Bombay in 1955 the youngest of nine sisters and one brother in a Gujarati Jain family residing in Bhuleshwar, an older South Mumbai neighbourhood where most of the Gujarati community resided. Inspired by her elder sister Bhawna, a model, Nivrutti adopted the Anglicised name Tina and entered the beauty pageant circuit. Fair, pretty and slim, she was crowned Femina Teen Princess India 1975 and subsequently represented India at the International Teen Contest in Aruba 1978; she became the 2nd runner up and won the Miss Photogenic and Miss Bikini awards.

After appearing in a toothpaste commercial, Tina caught the eye of producer/director/star Dev Anand who cast her as his leading lady in Des Pardes (1978), which became a big hit. He cast her in two more films with him in the lead, Lootmaar and Man Pasand, which also became blockbusters quickly making her a household name. The press linked her with the elderly lothario who had launched her into films and whose production house she was signed to, a claim she denied later. Tina had been childhood friends with bad boy star kid Sanjay Dutt and they became sweethearts. When Sunil Dutt launched his son in Rocky (1981) and Tina was cast as the movie’s leading lady, she not only left Dev Anand’s “camp” but also turned down two other romantic films that went on to become big grossers: Rajendra Kumar’s film Love Story introducing his son Kumar Gaurav and Ek Duje Ke Liye starring South Indian popular actor Kamal Haasan. Tina dimmed her light to play the supportive girlfriend, but Sanjay was heavily into alcohol and drugs. Despite several interventions by friends and family, Sanjay was badly addicted and eventually the two broke up.

Des Pardes with elederly lothario Dev Anand who launched her in her film career

Tina’s rapid climb to success via the men in her life

With boyfriend Sanjay Dutt, her co-star in Rocky

Tina was paired with the superstar Rajesh Khanna in a total of 11 films of which 8 were released and became huge hits including Souten and Bewafai. In their personal life too, the pair clicked. After his divorce from Dimple Kapadia, Khanna took up with Tina in 1980. She moved in to his palatial house Aashirwaad on Carter Road, but he never sealed the deal by marrying her. Towards the end of this scandalous, by the standards of the time, live in relationship, she attended a Gujarati wedding wearing a black sari. Traditional Gujarati wedding colours are red and gold, and she was the only one dressed minimally. A Gujarati industrialist’s son couldn’t help but notice the stylish Bollywood star, and thought himself how pretty and different she was. This young man was Anil Dhirubhai Ambani who would go on to transform her life.

Tina played the heroine in 11 Rajesh Khanna starrers as well moved in with him in his house after his divorce from Dimple Kapadia

Sex symbol

Three years younger than Tina, Anil was the son of one of India’s leading industrialists Dhirubhai Ambani of Reliance Group. He had gotten his Masters degree from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and had brought his modern ideas back with him with which he was modernizing his father’s business. A few months later, Anil ran into Tina in Philadelphia and was formally introduced to her. He asked her out, but being a star often propositioned by random men she was standoffish. Besides she was still living with Rajesh, who was not marrying her. In 1986, after she broke up with her older lover, Tina was again introduced to Anil by her nephew who insisted she  meet this eligible Gujarati boy. She agreed to meet him reluctcantly, but kept dilly dallying. When she finally capitulated and met him, she was struck by how straight forward and genuine he was, saying simply to her, “You are pretty.”

The Gujarati business tycoon Dhirubhai Ambani with Mukesh & Anil Ambani

Kokilaben & Dhirubhai Ambani

On the talk show, Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, Tina recounted their first date, “The first time I met him, I was quite struck by his simplicity. I found him very upfront and genuine….He was unlike the other men I had met, because most of the guys I met were from films. Also, we spoke the same language, not literally, but we were brought up in a similar manner.”

Anil agreed on the show about their affinity to each other, “When you meet someone from the film fraternity, you have certain notions about them. I have known many people from that industry, but she is just different. The attraction came about only after I met her.”

Anil knew that he had found The One, while Tina realized that he was the kind of marriage material guy she needed to settle down with. But it was not to be that easy. They dated only a few months before the budding romance was splashed all over the tabloids and the conservative Ambanis were not amused. Their son wanted to marry a scandalous actress who had openly been living with a man.  Anil’s parents asked him to end this relationship, which could have no future. The dutiful son promptly complied by breaking up with Tina after explaining the situation to her. Tina’s film career was already at its tail end. After yet another failed romance, disheartened, she decided in 1987 to leave for Los Angeles to qualify as an interior designer.

Extremely lavish but traditional Gujarati wedding

The two had no contact for the next four years, even though Anil said of his feelings at this time, “There was a lot of pain. A feeling of great loss!”

Then one day after a big earthquake hit the Los Angeles area, Anil called up Tina to check if she was safe. She greeted him warmly and said she was fine. Anil abruptly disconnected the call. After he hung up, Tina was flabbergasted that he called her out of the blue and then hung up so quickly. She recalled, “That was the time I was so upset and crying away. And, I asked myself why this guy called me, came into my life, and revived all the feelings? Obviously he cared that’s why he wanted to know whether I am OK or not. But, he did not even complete the conversation. The least he could do is complete the conversation.” It was an emotional blow for her. For the first time, she realised that Anil really cared for her.

On their first date, Anil said simply to Tina, “you are pretty”

Anil explained his side, “There was no conversation to be held. It would have been a sob-sob conversation, because when you are talking to someone you love so much after three to four years, you get into it.”

Though he could have had his pick of girls, Anil all this time kept trying to convince his parents to let him marry Tina. She in her turn had kept her head down and did not make any waves. Finally, seeing their son’s loyalty and commitment to Tina, they caved. With his parents blessing, Anil again called her up, and asked her when she would return to Bombay. Still smarting from his abrupt  call two years prior, she brushed him off saying “soon” but not thinking anything of it she kept postponing her plans. After six weeks of this cat and mouse game, Anil told her that if she did not come this time, he would not call her again. Hearing the seriousness in his voice, she said, “That was when I realised that something is going on and I shouldn’t miss this. Now, I should go back, and that following week, I came back.”

The very next day, Anil picked her up and immediately took her to his home to meet his parents. He recalled, “Even before she came back to India, I had very clearly laid out a plan. This is the day she will meet my parents, this is the day will get engaged, this is the day we will get married and this would be the location.”

Anil Ambani with sons, Anmol & Anshul

When Anil left Tina with his family, his older brother, Mukesh Ambani, casually asked Tina how she felt about getting married the next month. She said that she was shocked when she realised that once the parental consent was given how quickly they were to be married. After this, Anil only had her family to contend with.

Anil said, “I went to her house in Khar. Tina’s sister and brother-in-law were there. They both were quite shocked to see me because they didn’t know what was going on (in Mumbai). Her brother-in-law went inside to tell her mother. She was shocked to see me. I said that you love your daughter, Tina, very much, and she said, ‘yes, absolutely.’ I said that ‘if that is the case, then you can keep her here otherwise, I very much want to marry her.’”

The billionaire brothers with their wives, Nita & Tina

Tina & Anil with the Spielbergs at the Golden Globes 2013 representing their co-production Lincoln

When Tina’s mother figured out that the son of India’s richest man was asking for her daughter’s hand in marriage, she was overjoyed and took his hand in gratitude. Anil and Tina got married only six weeks later in February 1991 in a lavish but traditional Gujarati wedding. Tina wore a red Gujarati bridal sari with heavy gold Gujarati jewellery. Anil wore a cream coloured sherwani with gold embroidery and a Maharaja’s multi strand pearl necklace.

Tina, after leading an independent life, moved in with her in laws. When the former sex symbol was asked how she felt about staying in a joint family system, she said, “I have all the freedom that I want. If at all there is a restriction, it has been put by me. I believe that in our culture and our society, it’s not only the guy you are getting married to, the family is also apart of the marriage. I was brought up like this, so this hasn’t been difficult for me.”

The couple has two sons, Jai Anmol Ambani and Jai Anshul Ambani, who Tina said have been brought up in as simple a manner as possible and don’t make many public appearances.

Sibling Rivalry

Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani
Net worth: $31.3 Billion (as of March 2017)

Chairman & MD, Reliance Industries,
inherited their father’s core
businesses, which he made even more profitable

Reliance Group
Reliance Industries,
Reliance Petroleum (RPL)
Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL)
Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd (RIIL)

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani
Net worth:$2.9 billion (as of March 2017)

Chairman, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG)
inherited the newer companies, which suffered losses

Reliance Communications (RCOM)
Reliance Capital (RCL)
Reliance Energy (REL) Reliance Natural Resources
Ltd (RNRL)
Reliance Broadcast Network
Ltd (RBNL)

After the death of Dhirubhai, Mukesh and Anil fell out over their vast inheritance, but finally their mother mediated and divided up the family’s businesses and assets. Mukesh Ambani is India’s first trillionaire in INR or worth more than $33 billion and lives with his wife and three kids in India’s most expensive private residence Antilia, a billion dollar high rise, while Anil, a low single digit billionaire, owns Telecom, Entertainment, Financial Services, Power and Infrastructure companies. His notable deals include launching India’s largest IPO of Reliance Power in 2008, which was subscribed in less than 60-seconds on offer, fastest in the history of Indian capital markets till date. In 2008, he also signed a joint venture worth US$1.2 billion with Steven Spielberg’s production company DreamWorks. He is also building a multi story residence called Abode, ironically on Nargis Dutt Road, Pali Hill, Bandra, which will cost even more than his brother’s home. Both the brothers have been awarded many outstanding business awards by prestigious institutions the world over.

Tina at 62 has lost her former slim figure and has also had a nose job

While her husband is hard at work wheeling and dealing, Tina spends her free time promoting worthy charitable foundations including Harmony Foundation – For Senior citizens, Harmony Art Foundation – For Promotion of Art, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute – Mumbai, and Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Nursing College (KDA-NC) – Mumbai.

She sums up her wedded bliss, “Lots of happiness, two beautiful children, a wonderful marriage.”