Madhuri Dixit and her husband, Dr Sriram Nene, often share anecdotes about their personal lives on his YouTube channel. In a past video, Madhuri admitted that there have been ‘difficult times’ during their marriage, but said that ‘overall, it’s been a lovely journey’. She said that she held the fort when Dr Nene would be at work, sometimes for days on end, but he made sure to take over domestic responsibilities during his free time. She said that she would’ve probably been the same way had she been a doctor, and that the hard work they put in perhaps rubs off on their sons. Dr Nene joked, “When heart surgeons retire, their wives kick them out of the house because they’ll go and organise every cabinet, make sure the workflow is organised
Reflecting on the early years of their marriage, she said, “When we got married, you were doing your residency in Florida. It was like calls every other day. And I remember, I wouldn’t see you for days. You were working sleepless nights, and by the time you’d come home, you would be so tired, you wouldn’t even eat your dinner. You would just collapse.”
Dr Nene explained, “Medicine is the ultimate endurance run, because in the US, you have to do four years of undergrad, you have to be the best in your field, do the pre-medical requirements, do the testing and end up on top. You have to then do four years of medical school… We got married when I’d just finished my general surgery chief residency at UCLA, and we were going to Florida… I would say the arduous hours were very challenging… But it creates a soldier, because you can do anything. As hard as I worked during my residency and fellowship, I worked harder as an ‘attending’, because everything stopped at me.”
He said that he doesn’t regret the work that he put in and the sacrifices that he made, but added, “I do regret the hours lost with family and friends.”
He asked Madhuri what it was like for her to be married to someone like him, and she said, “It’s tough, because of the kind of times that you guys have to keep. It’s hard, because you are the one looking after the kids, taking them to school and bringing them back. Also, the timings. Something important could be happening, but you’re not there, because you’re at the hospital. Sometimes I might be sick, but you have to take care of someone else. But I always used to feel so proud of you… In your heart of hearts, you’re a nice person. And whenever you used to be home, you used to take over. You used to be like, ‘Just give me four hours to sleep, and after that, you go out and do whatever you want to, I’ll look after the kids’.
“Before marriage, my life was all about work. It was only after I got married that I lived my life,” Madhuri said. Madhuri and Dr Nene tied the knot in 1999. They have two sons, and have now moved base entirely to India.
