EXCLUSIVE | Neha Dhupia: I was pregnant when Angad got Covid

Actor Neha Dhupia is expecting her second child, and it has been a ride of ups and downs with her husband, actor Angad Bedi testing positive for Covid-19 in the initial months of her pregnancy.

“Hard is an understatement. It was a lot that we went through. It’s always hard when someone around you gets Covid-19, and harder when you’re pregnant, but Angad was the one who helped me stay positive in that period,” she tells us.

In an exclusive chat with us, soon after announcing her second pregnancy on social media, Dhupia, 40, confesses that there are a bundle of things that she’d want to do differently this time when she becomes a mother. Her daughter, Mehr was born in November 2018.

“The second pregnancy has been different. I’ve got less questions in my mind because I know the beats of it, and why and how the mind and body reacts to it. I always compare it with my first pregnancy. However, the lockdown didn’t make it easier,” admits Dhupia, who is due in October.

She shares that the celebration [this time] is of a different kind where the environment is more controlled as she wants to make sure that she, and the baby are fine.

“We’ve been treading on with caution a little more this time than before. And mostly staying indoors, making most of the time with Mehr, and gearing her up and the home for the baby,” she gushes.

There are many things about the pandemic that overwhelms her sometimes, when she has to pause for a minute and find her calm.

“The one thing that overwhelms me is the world we’re living in. There’s a lot of uncertainty that goes into your head, like are we bringing our child into a safe zone or not. But as a mum, you always have that in our mind, if you’re good enough. These are some of the questions that overwhelm you,” she shares.

Ask her how did Angad react when she shared the news with him, and she laughs, “It was full of excitement and joy. It’s between amazed, amused and happy. We looked at each other [and realised] that this is what we wanted and we got.”

In fact, her daughter, Mehr, also knows that she’s going to be a big sister soon, and is already wondering what toys she’d share with the baby. “Kids are very intuitive,” exclaims Dhupia, adding, “I also show her little babies and tell her that she’ll have a sibling soon. She has kept a pet name for the baby and I make sure she does rub on my belly and is aware.”

However, there’s a hard task that lies ahead for Dhupia to deal with and that’s to make Mehr understand how to share everything.

“She’s padded with so much love between her grandparents and her parents that we also have to prepare her that she’d have to share everything, including mummy and daddy time. That’s something which is going to be hard for us to prepare her for,” says the actor.