Are Sania Mirza And Shoaib Malik Actually Separated? Here’s All You Need To Know

Amid rumours of separation from retired Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, former Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik took everyone by surprise as he announced on Saturday that he has married Pakistani actor Sana Javed. Both the cricketer and the actress shared images from the wedding ceremony on their Instagram handles with the caption, "And We created you in pairs.” 

It cannot go unnoticed that the rumours of Sania and Shoaib’s split have been strong since 2022, and they have rarely been seen together in the last couple of years. Now as per reports, the two are officially separated and it was a ‘khula’. News agency PTI quoted a source from Shoaib Malik's family as saying that "it was a ‘khula’,” which refers to the right of a Muslim woman to unilaterally divorce her husband. 

Just a couple of days ago, Shoaib also unfollowed Sania on Instagram, and changed his Instagram bio from “Husband to a superwoman Sania Mirza” to “Father to One True Blessing.”

Sania too had hinted at separation from the former Pakistan cricketer via a cryptic Instagram Story. The text on her Story read as, “Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard.” And it ended with, “Life will never be easy. It will always be hard. Choose your hard. Pick wisely.”

For those caught unaware, Shoaib and Sania tied the knot in the Indian player's hometown Hyderabad in April 2010 and they used to live in Dubai. The former couple announced the birth of their son, Izhaan Mirza Malik, in 2018. With Sania and Shoaib allegedly ending their marriage, the two have been co-parenting Izhaan ever since. Not to miss, the two hosted a chat show called ‘The Mirza Malik Show’ on Spotify just last year.

Work wise, Sania won 43 WTA doubles titles and one singles trophy in her career so far, and announced her retirement from tennis last year. Shoaib, on the other hand, made his international cricket debut in 1999 in ODIs. He went on to captain the Pakistan cricket team in several formats and played his last international game against Bangladesh in 2021.