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3 min readHyderabadMar 1, 2026 11:57 AM IST
Thalapathy Vijay, who once publicly credited his wife Sangeetha Sornalingam as the reason behind his happiness, now faces a divorce petition filed by her at the Chengalpattu Family Court
It was 2004. During a stage interaction, ‘Thalapathy’ Vijay was asked how he had managed to carry himself so well, the kind of easy, throwaway compliment that gets asked of film stars at public events. He did not deflect it with a joke. He did not brush it off. He sat with it for a moment and answered it honestly.
“I don’t know,” he said, “I myself don’t know whether I am handsome or not.” Then, almost immediately, he added: “But I think my mother and my wife are the reason for this.”
Vijay went on to explain what he meant. Happiness, he said, is what shows on a person. When you are genuinely happy, that feeling comes through, and that is what people see. “If you are happy, that happiness shows. And that is what brings the beauty, I think.”
He paused, then added one more name to the list. “And not just that, most importantly, my fans.” The interaction showed just a man in his early thirties, five years into his marriage, telling a room full of people who made him feel like himself.
Also Read: Vijay’s wife Sangeetha files for divorce; alleges affair with actress
After 22 years of this particular moment, on Friday, it emerged that his wife Sangeetha Sornalingam has filed for divorce at the Chengalpattu Family Court.
Her petition, filed under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, states that she discovered an alleged affair in April 2021. It claims that despite assurances the affair would end, it continued. The petition describes emotional withdrawal, financial restrictions, and a marriage that now, in her words, “survives only on paper.”
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It was not always like this. Theirs was, for a long time, one of Tamil cinema’s most quietly admired love stories, precisely because it stayed quiet.
Sangeetha Sornalingam was a Sri Lankan Tamil raised in London, the daughter of a well-established industrialist. She became a fan of Vijay after watching Poove Unakkaga in 1996 and travelled from London to Chennai specifically to meet him on set. He invited her home. Vijay’s parents took to her immediately. The families exchanged approval, and on August 25, 1999, Vijay and Sangeetha were married in Chennai in a ceremony that honoured both their Hindu and Christian backgrounds.
She was never seen at film premieres. Rarely photographed at industry events. The last time she appeared publicly beside Vijay was at the Master pre-release event in January 2021, the same year, according to her petition, that she discovered the affair.
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