Jemima denies split rumours

Valentine Low13 April 2012

In terms of tempting fate, it comes somewhere between the curse of Hello! and that moment in a football manager’s career when his club chairman tells the press that the board has full confidence in him.

Today Jemima Khan risked all by denying in all the major papers in Pakistan that there are problems in her marriage to former cricket star Imran Khan.

There has been considerable speculation recently about the late Sir James Goldsmith’s daughter’s marriage to Khan, 51, based on the fact that he is in Pakistan pursuing his political career and she is nearly 4,000 miles away in
London.

Jemima, 29, said the other day: “I’m studying for a master’s degree in London so obviously I’m not in Pakistan.”

With rumours about the marriage appearing in some newspapers in Britain and
Pakistan, raising concerns in some Pakistani circles that she will never return, Jemima clearly felt that it was time to try to put a stop to such
unfounded speculation.

She sent out a one-paragraph statement to all the major papers in Pakistan — both English language and Urdu — including the respected Daily Times of Lahore.

The notice, under the heading of “advertorial”, carried the headline Jemima Clarifies and was sent out by the PR department of Shaukat Khan Memorial Cancer Hospital, which she and Khan set up.

It reads: “Whilst it is true that I am currently studying for a Masters degree at The School of Oriental and African Studies in London, it is certainly not true to say that Imran and I are having difficulties in our marriage.

“This is a temporary arrangement and Inshallah I will be moving back to Pakistan once my studies are finished and once the building of our farm house outside Islamabad is complete.

“Both Imran and I have become accustomed to these spiteful rumours. However that does not make them less hurtful for those around us and in particular our
family.”

The couple, who married in Richmond in 1995, have two sons, Sulaiman, seven, and Kasim, four.

While no one has any reason to doubt her words, such a move has unfortunate precedents.

In 1994 Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford took out a £21,000 advertisement in The
Times to deny widespread reports that their marriage was in difficulties. “We are heterosexual and monogamous and take our commitment to each other very seriously,” they said. “We remain very married.”

They separated two months after and later divorced.

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