Think of Lalit Modi and most people immediately remember the birth of the IPL, the glamour, the scandals, and his life in exile. But behind that public image is a deeply personal love story that didn’t fit the rules of his world. It’s a story with a woman ten years older, divorced, with a child, and a family that initially refused to accept her. In a candid conversation with Karishma Mehta for Humans of Bombay recently, Lalit Modi opened up about how he fell in love with Minal Sagrani, how he fought for their relationship, and why losing her remains the greatest heartbreak and regret of his life.
From family friend to the love of his life
Minal first entered Lalit’s life as “family.” Her parents were close to his; he had known of her since childhood, but tarted getting to know her when he was 18. She was married, beautiful, and lived in London, while he was a young man in India preparing to go to the US. It wasn’t until he turned 18 and joined her on a trip to Kashmir with her daughter, Karima, that their bond truly began. On that holiday, a casual family connection turned into a deep friendship.When Lalit started travelling to America, London became a regular stopover. He would stay at Minal’s parents’ home, and she would take him out, show him the city, and gradually become his closest confidante, Lalit revealed in his interview. Somewhere in those years of shared flights, conversations and inside jokes, he fell in love with her; though he was fully aware that she was married and ten years older.In his early 20s, around 1985, he finally confessed his feelings to Minal. And it cost him their friendship. They stopped speaking and drifted apart for about four years. Life moved on. He returned to India, joined the family business, and buried himself in work.Then, on New Year’s Eve in 1989 at a party at Fort Aguada in Goa, fate circled back. Minal was at the same celebration. Over dinner, he came to know that she was divorced. Later that night, the two of them walked along the beachand he kissed her. From that moment, “I never proposed to her; we just knew we would be together,” Lalit said.
A hidden romance, weekly flights, and family opposition
What sounds romantic today was anything but simple then. Their relationship was kept secret for almost a year. Minal was divorced, had a child, and was older than him. These factors turned their love story into a full-blown controversy in their conservative circles.At the time, Lalit was deeply involved in multiple business projects and travelled frequently. Officially, those trips were about work. Unofficially, his travel patterns kept bending toward London. He would fly there once a week, or meet Minal in different cities. What his family saw was their son constantly being spotted with “some girl” abroad – sometimes in London, sometimes in Paris. Every time, when questioned, he gave a different name, even though it was always her, Lalit shared in the interview.Back home, his family tried to set him up with “suitable” girls, whom he would meet and then politely decline. Eventually, he stopped dodging and told them the truth: He wanted to marry Minal. His parents were completely against it and so, Lalit chose to move to London. There, the roles reversed: Minal, who came from a well-off family and had her own money, supported him while he rebuilt his life outside India. This dependence upset his grandmother deeply at first.And yet, it was this same grandmother who finally shifted everything. Lalit Modi’s grandmother had 11 children who would often visit her. And so, she quietly took a photograph of Minal and placed it in her home. In their family, that was a powerful, unspoken gesture: A sign of Minal’s acceptance. If the matriarch had put her foot down in support, others could no longer ignore the relationship, Lalit shared.
Photo: Lalit Modi/ Instagram
“I just knew it was Minal”
When asked what made him fall for Minal, Lalit calls it “love at first sight,” even though their story unfolded over a decade. He met her at 18, married her at 28, and in between, there were years of silence, years of friendship, and years of quiet defiance.He says Minal knew all his secrets, and he knew everything about her. She had seen him grow up under his parents’ roof, watched him navigate business, and travelled the world with him long before they officially became husband and wife. He is quick to admit he’s “not an easy person to live with,” and that her understanding of him was built over years of observing him in every mood and phase.
Loss, guilt, and the regret that still haunts him
In December 2018, everything changed. Minal, then 64, passed away after a long battle with cancer and complications from an alternative treatment she chose to try in Berlin, which caused fluid to build in her lungs, Lalit revealed. On her way to Dubai, she collapsed and was hospitalised.In her final days, all the children were by her side. Lalit remembers them all sitting together on the bed. She seemed unwell but he shared he didn’t think she would pass away so soon. On that last day, she asked everyone to go shower and said they’d play cards afterwards. While he was getting ready, she passed away. He believes she knew her time had come and didn’t want her family to witness her final breath.The shock was so intense for Lalit Modi that he suffered a heart attack and was rushed to hospital. The very next day, he attended her funeral, he shared.What followed was the darkest slump of his life. The year after, his father passed away. Already broken from losing his wife, this second blow pushed him further into isolation. He stopped meeting people, sank into depression, and emotionally checked out from much of his family life.He says he only began to slowly emerge from that fog in 2022, when his daughter was getting married in Venice. Even then, the joy was braided with regret. His daughter had planned the entire wedding on her own. The celebration was beautiful, but he feels he wasn’t fully there for her or his other children in those years. To this day, he says he struggles to forgive himself for disappearing emotionally when they needed him to be strong.
An unusual love that outlasted judgement
Lalit Modi and Minal Sagrani’s story isn’t neat. It began in secrecy and scandal, defied the expectations of a wealthy, conservative family, and faced the harsh glare of public life. Yet, underneath all of that, it was a love that both of them chose, again and again, despite age gaps, past marriages, health battles, and intense scrutiny.
