MasterChef India Judge Kunal Kapur Gets Divorce From Estranged Wife On Grounds of Mental Cruelty

Celebrity chef Kunal Kapur was granted divorce on Tuesday, citing cruelty from his estranged wife. The High Court’s decision highlighted the lack of dignity and empathy in her behaviour towards him. A family court had previously denied him divorce. However, he challenged the decision in the High Court, which has now granted him divorce saying that defamatory, humiliating and unsubstantiated allegations in public against a spouse amount to cruelty. "In the light of the afore-noted facts of the present case, we find that conduct of the respondent [wife] towards appellant [Kapur] has been such that it is devoid of dignity and empathy towards him. When such is the nature of one spouse towards the other, it brings disgrace to the very essence of marriage and there exist no possible reason as to why he should be compelled to live while enduring the agony of living together," the Court observed.

During the hearing, Kunal Kapur claimed that his wife would repeatedly call the police to threaten him and his family. He said that in September 2016, while he was working on MasterChef India sets at Yah Raj Studios, his wife entered the studio with their young son and created ruckus, leading him to obtain a restraining order against her.He further alleged that as he gained public attention, his wife threatened to spread false rumors to the media and file fake criminal complaints against him and his parents. On one such occasion, she even slapped him just before he was leaving for work. He even claimed that his wife never respected his parents and humiliated him.Kapur's wife made allegations of infidelity against him. According to her, it allegedly started after he became famous. 

The court however said, "she failed to depose any specific instance, showing that she was only insinuating". "Nor did she provide any proof apart from photographs which are based on her presumption of illicit affairs as admitted by her in her cross-examination," the court added. For the unversed, Kunal Kapur got married in 2008. The couple has a son born in 2012.  The couple has been living separately since May 2015.From a very early age, Kapur took a liking to cooking and pursued it to become one of the most well-known chefs in India. He trains underprivileged and unemployed youth in cooking and helps raise funds to make their own sustained food business together with United Ways Delhi. He is also passionate about automobiles, technology, travel, fashion and history. He was given an opportunity to present Satvik cuisine to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Bangalore. He also cooked for 42 first ladies on the India Africa Summit besides an interactive cooking session with them during their recent visit to India