Actress and IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) co-owner, Juhi Chawla has been named as the richest self-made woman in the Hurun India Rich List 2024 with a net worth of INR 4600 crore. While much is known about Juhi Chawla’s professional life, her personal life– be it marriage with Jay Mehta or their two children– is often kept away from the spotlight. Here we share Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta’s lesser-known love story and how they eventually got secretly married in 1995.

When Jay met Juhi: Destiny’s plan
She was one of the top actresses in the 90s.He was a businessman, whose life was far away from the glitz and glam of Bollywood. However, as destiny would have it– the duo met and became friends, and soon love blossomed between them which lead to marriage and roughly 30 years of togetherness. We are talking about actress and KKR co-owner Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta- the Chairman of The Mehta Group.
Juhi first met Jay through their common friend Rakesh Roshan at a dinner party and they soon became friends, as per a report by BollywoodShaadis. While they would often meet as friends, there wasn’t any romantic inclination between them. In 1990, tragedy struck Jay Mehta when he lost his wife Sujata Birla in a plane crash accident. And in such a difficult time, it was Juhi who helped him cope with his loss. Slowly love blossomed between them, however, the duo were initially hesitant to put a name to their feelings for each other.
Recently, when Juhi participated as a guest in a celebrity dance reality show, she spoke about her love story with her husband Jay. “Jay and I met at dinner, and then he started hovering around me. Once, on my birthday, he sent me a truck full of red roses. And I took a year to say ‘yes’ to him,” Juhi shared.
She further revealed that during this time, Jay would also write her letters every day– a sweet gesture that touched her heart. Before marriage, he used to write letters to me every day. But all of that stopped after marriage (laughs). Those days, we used to send letters and cards to each other which has now turned into emails and WhatsApp messages,” the actress said.
From hush-hush courtship to secret wedding
Just like the news of Jay and Juhi dating was kept under wraps, their wedding in 1995 was also quite hush-hush. One of the reasons for it was the sudden death of Juhi’s mother in an accident, while the actress was shooting for ‘Duplicate’ in Prague. Talking about her secret wedding, Juhi once revealed during an interview at the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industry, “My mother had just passed away a year ago. When the wedding date was coming close, I was thinking ‘My mother is gone, whom I loved the most, and now my career will also go away’. I didn’t know how to be happy about it. So, I broke down one day and told my mother-in-law and she said ‘It’s okay’.” Juhi further revealed in the interview that it was her mother-in-law who recalled over 2000 wedding invites! And that’s how Juhi and Jay ended up marrying in an intimate wedding ceremony at home with just a few close friends and family.

As per BollywoodShaadis, the news of the couple’s marriage surfaced only in 2001 when they were expecting their first child together! Talking to Rajeev Masand in an earlier interview, Juhi shared that she kept her marriage a secret for so long because she didn’t want it to hamper her career back then. Also, this was the pre-internet and social media era when people could have a private life.
Jay Mehta and Juhi Chawla have now been married for close to 30 years and they have two children together– daughter Jahnavi and son Arjun.