Karan Johar, a single parent to twins Yash and Roohi, has often shared the challenges of single parenthood. Alongside his 81-year-old mother, Hiroo, Karan has been raising his children, who were born via surrogacy in 2017. Recently, in an interview, Karan revealed that his children have begun asking questions about their birth, prompting him to seek professional guidance.
During a conversation with Faye D’Souza on her YouTube channel, Karan explained, “It is a modern family. It is an unusual circumstance, so now I am also dealing with the questions about ‘whose stomach was I born in? But mumma is not mumma really, she is my grandmother’. I am going to school, to the counsellor, to ask how do we navigate the situation? And it is not easy, being a parent is never easy.”
Karan also discussed projecting his insecurities onto his son, Yash. He admitted struggling to avoid making insensitive remarks. “When I see my son consuming sugar and notice he has put on more weight, I get paranoid for him. I don’t want to say it to him because I want him to be happy and joyous,” he said.
Encouraging his son to engage in physical activities, Karan said, “I tell my son to go play cricket or football and do all the things that I didn’t do. But I shouldn’t be this parent. I want my kids to be individuals of their own choice, both my daughter and my son.”
Karan shared an incident where he regretted making a hurtful comment to Yash. “I said ‘Yash, you have put on weight’. We were on a holiday, and I said it. Then I went to my room and thought, ‘Why did you do that?’ I went back, hugged him, and apologized, saying, ‘I am really sorry, you eat what you want’.”
Reflecting on his own childhood, Karan mentioned how his parents would often urge him to conform to societal norms. He acknowledged that society wasn’t evolved enough then to accept children like him for who they are.