Superstar couple Anushka & Virat Kohli urge paparazzis 'to stay away from our baby'

International Desk
14 Jan 2021 00:13:21 | Update: 14 Jan 2021 01:09:17

There are some celebrity couples in India who publicise their pregnancies to such a level that people start keeping tabs on their appointments with gynecologists and hospital visits. Then there are some who manage to keep their impending arrivals a secret for months.

Bollywood's most adored couple -- actress Anushka Sharma and her cricketer-husband Virat Kohli -- are a perfect mix of both.

After announcing Anushka's pregnancy on social media in August last year, the couple now want the paparazzis in Mumbai to not click photos of their newborn daughter. The Indian skipper announced that they were blessed with a baby girl, their first child, on January 11, adding that "both the mother and the baby are healthy".

However, in a note to the paparazzi fraternity in the Bollywood city on Wednesday, the couple said: "As parents, we have a simple request to make to you. We want to protect the privacy of our child and we need your help and support."

The Indian cricket captain and his wife have, however, assured the paparazzis that they will share the "content" at the right time. "While we will always ensure that you get all the content you need featuring us, we would request you to kindly not take or carry any content that has our child."

After being in a relationship for many years, Virat and Anushka, both 32, tied the knot at a low-key ceremony in Italy's Tuscan region in December 2017. In August last year, the couple took to social media to announce the pregnancy by writing "and then we were three".

A right-handed top-order batsman, Kohli is regarded as one of the best contemporary batsmen in the world. He has been the national cricket team's captain since 2013. Since October 2017, he has been the top-ranked ODI batsman in the world and is currently second in Test rankings with 879 points.

In 2018, Time magazine named Kohli one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he became the only cricketer in the world to feature in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world with an estimated earnings of USD 26 million.

Anushka, on the other hand, moved to Mumbai to pursue a full-time career as a model but she soon made her acting debut opposite 'Bollywood Badshah' Shah Rukh Khan in the highly successful romantic flick 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' in 2008. She subsequently featured in Yash Raj Films' romances 'Band Baaja Baaraat' (2010) and 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan' (2012).