Despite not getting married, Sushmita Sen didn't shy away from romantic relationships. From adopting baby girls to making her career from scratch, she did it all by herself.
However, one relationship got her a tag she could not escape for a long time.
Her relationship with Lalit Modi got her the gold digger tag that came because of their age difference primarily.
Lalit Modi Clears the Air About Sushmita Sen
© X/lalitkmodi
Speaking on the Humans of Bombay podcast, Lalit Modi opened up about his relationship with Sushmita Sen and how all the tags and labels that were given to her were false and wrong.
He immediately came to her defence, "She's not a gold digger; I am a diamond digger."
He and Sen are still "good friends," and a lot of what he is today came because of her impact. She helped him "grow into a lot of things that I am today."
"Please understand that Sushmita is a very beautiful and very well-to-do lady. She has more diamonds than anybody I know on the planet, and she has earned them herself. She has diamond stores. So, she is a very wealthy lady. She has done it all on her own. There wasn't a single time that I went out with Sushmita that I had to pay for anything. She paid for everything. I was like a kept boyfriend."
He continued, "Sushmita is a remarkable lady and self-made lady. She will never accept anything from anybody. So when somebody says she was a gold digger, Lalit was a diamond digger. She was truly a diamond. She could have anybody on the planet she wanted. It was never about money. It was never about anything else. She can buy anything she wants, do anything she wants, without a doubt."
He defended her wholeheartedly, admitting that money was never the issue between them, and it was their individual lives and careers that forced them to break up. Sushmita and Lalit's relationship surfaced around 2022, and the two did not try to hide it either. He was settled in London and she in India, so the long distance made it impossible for them to continue.