Esha Deol found out about Dharmendra’s first marriage in Class 4: Never felt bad

When veteran actor Dharmendra married Hema Malini, he was already married to Prakash Kaur, with whom he had four children: Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Vijeta Deol, and Ajeita Deol. However, Dharmendra and Hema’s daughters, Esha and Ahana Deol, were unaware of their unconventional family dynamic. They learnt about it only when Esha was in Class 4, and her classmate asked her, “You have two moms, right?”
In Hema Malini’s biography, Hema Malini: Beyond the Dream Girl, by Ram Kamal Mukherjee, Esha Deol recalled snapping at her classmate, “What rubbish! I have only one mother.” After returning home, she told her mother what had happened at school.
It was at that moment that Hema Malini decided to inform her daughters about Dharmendra’s other family. Esha shared, “The moment I reached home, I told my mom that a friend was asking me this question. I think it was at that point in time that my mom decided to tell me the truth. Imagine, we were in the fourth standard and had no idea about anything.”

Dharmendra and Hema Malini got married in 1980.

She added, “So, that was when I understood that my mother had married someone who was already married to another lady and that they also had a family. But frankly speaking, I never felt bad about it. To this day, I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. I give full credit to my parents for not making us ever feel uncomfortable.”
In fact, Esha was not accustomed to having her father around and realised that fathers can be present in their families only after visiting her friend’s house.

Esha Deol with father Dharmendra.

“When I was younger, I used to go to my friends’ houses where I would see both parents being around. That’s when I realised that it’s normal to have dads around too. But somehow, we were groomed in a way that it didn’t affect me much. I was very content with my mother, and I loved my father,” Esha mentioned.
Hema Malini and Dharmendra got married in 1980.