My children are not to be preyed upon: Preity Zinta 'shaken' by harrowing experiences

The actor urged people to treat her as a human first, a celebrity later

Actor Preity Zinta had a rather rough week with certain incidents that led to her privacy being violated – not once but twice. Shaken by the harrowing experiences, she shared details about how an unknown woman "scooped and kissed" her daughter Gia in a garden, a man in a wheelchair repeatedly asked for money and became aggressive when he was given some but not enough.

On Saturday, Preity took to Instagram to share details about the incidents. "Two events this week have left me a bit shaken. One regarding my daughter Gia-where a woman tried to take her photo. When we politely asked her not to, she walked away, but then suddenly scooped my daughter in her arms, planted a big wet kiss next to her mouth and ran off saying, ‘what a cute baby,’” she wrote.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Preity G Zinta (@realpz)

The actor exclaimed that she chose to keep her calm when she could’ve created a scene. “This woman lives in an elite building and happened to be in the garden where my kids were playing. If I wasn’t a celebrity, I probably would have reacted badly but kept my cool as I didn’t want to make a scene.”

The post also contained a video where Preity can be seen sitting in her car and trying to close the door, while someone kept saying "please". The actor politely said that she has a flight to catch but a person in a wheelchair kept asking for money. While the car tried to leave the area, the man knocked on the door, shouted at them, and even followed the vehicle.

Talking about the same, she shared that she knew the man and has helped him in her own capacity for years. “You can see the second incident here. I had a plane to catch and this handicapped man kept trying to stop me. Over the years, he has harassed me for money and I have given it to him when I could. This time when he asked for money I said, ‘Sorry, today I have no cash, just a credit card.’ The lady with me gave him some money from her purse. He threw it back at her because it wasn’t enough and started getting aggressive. As you can see, he followed us for some time and got more aggressive,” she wrote.

More than the incident, what bothered Preity more was how no one thought about helping her and her daughter but instead found the scene entertaining. "The photographers found this incident funny. Instead of helping us, they filmed and laughed. No one told him not to follow the car or harass us as anyone could have gotten hurt. Had there been an accident, I would have been blamed. My being a celebrity would have been questioned. Bollywood would have been blamed and a lot of negativity would have spread,” she exclaimed.

The Kal Ho Naa Ho star demanded to be treated like a human first, a mom second and then a celebrity. “I think it’s high time people realise that I’m a human being first, then a mom and then a celebrity. I also don’t need to apologise for my success constantly and be bullied for it because I’ve worked very hard to get where I am,” she said. "I have an equal right like anyone else in this country to live the way I want. So, please think before you judge and stop blaming celebrities for everything. There are always two sides to a story.”

Preity concluded by saying that her children are not part of a "package deal" and should not be preyed upon by photographers or touched/grabbed. “Most importantly my children are NOT part of a package deal and are not meant to be preyed on so please, leave my kids alone and don’t come to them for photos or touch/grab them. They are infants and need to be treated like infants, not celebrities.” she asserted. The actor also urged photographers to act with "grace, humanity, and maturity" in the future and help rather than just record the situation.

Preity, who recently travelled to India, lives with her husband Gene Goodenough and their children, Gia and Jai, in Los Angeles.