Dinesh Karthik had faced brutal betrayal from his first wife, Nikita Vanjara and friend, Murali Vijay. However, he gave life a second chance and got married to Dipika Pallikal.
Love stories are one of the most selling ideas when it comes to shows or books, and when there is a love triangle involved, things get more interesting. We have seen films like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil Toh Pagal Hai, Bajirao Mastani and many more, which revolved around some fascinating love triangles. However, the biggest love triangle and the most brutal betrayal was faced by cricketer, Dinesh Karthik, who had lost his first wife, Nikita Vanjara to another cricketer, Murali Vijay.
While a love triangle makes for the most gossips, it entirely destroys the lives of the people involved in it. A similar thing had happened with Indian cricketer, Dinesh Karthik, whose teammate and friend, Murali Vijay had fallen in love with his wife, Nikita Vanjara, destroying their married life.
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Dinesh Karthik and Nikita Vanjara were childhood friends as their fathers knew each other and were good friends. Growing up together, Dinesh and Nikita had got fond of each other and their families had decided to turn their friendship into a relationship. Dinesh and Nikita too were eager to get married. In 2007, when Dinesh Karthik was 21 years old, he had tied the knot with Nikita Vanjara, starting their happy married life.
While Dinesh Karthik and Nikita Vanjara were childhood friends turned into life partners, after five years of marital bliss, their wedding had hit a roadblock. Nikita had lost interest in Dinesh Karthik as she had fallen in love with his friend and teammate, Murali Vijay.
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The wicketkeeper, Dinesh Karthik and cricketer, Murali Vijay were good friends before the formers’ wife’s affair with the latter had destroyed it all for them. In 2012, during the Indian Premier League season 5, Dinesh and Murali were teammates in the cricket team for Tamil Nadu. During the crucial Vijay Hazare trophy match against Karnataka, Dinesh had got to know about his wife, Nikita’s affair with Murali.
Soon after knowing about Nikita’ affair with Murali, Dinesh Karthik had decided to part ways with her. Dinesh Karthik and Nikita Vanjara had a divorce in 2012 while she was pregnant with a boy. After her divorce, Nikita had married her boyfriend, Murali Vijay. Since then, both Dinesh and Murali have kept their silence on the issue and have acted maturely, moving on in their lives, rather than mudslinging on one another.
Since their wedding in 2012, Nikita Vijay and Murali Vijay are in a steady and happy married life. The star couple is blessed with three kids, two sons and a daughter. Nikita had welcomed their first baby, a boy named Nirav, in 2013. Later, they were blessed with a baby girl named Eva. It was in October 2017, when Murali and Nikita had welcomed a baby boy, Aarav into their lives. Taking to his Twitter handle, Murali had announced the ‘good news’ by sharing an adorable picture, where his son, Nirav was seen holding the little one in his arms. Along with the picture, he had tweeted:
“Two Rockstars!! One introducing the other to the world. Feeling Blessed #grateful #lovetoall #moretolife”
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After divorce from his first wife, Nikita Vanjara, Dinesh Karthik had found love in India’s Squash queen, Dipika Pallikal, and had decided to give their relationship a try. At first, Dipika had hated Dinesh as she believed that this kind of hype and fame will disturb their careers. Dipika and Dinesh were taking fitness classes with the same coach, Basu Shankar, and there they had met each other formally. After a few meetings, Dipika’s misconceptions were cleared and the duo had become friends.
In an interview with IANS, Dipika Pallikal had recalled her first meeting with Dinesh Karthik and had said:
"In fact, the first time we met was at a marathon some five years ago. After that, we met at the gym and, if I remember, I left for practice without even saying bye to him. Slowly we got to know each other."
Sharing how things had grown between her and Dinesh, Dipika had added:
"We got to know each other at the gym, but there was nothing more, contrary to what most media reports seem to suggest."
Dipika Pallikal had grown fond of Dinesh Karthik as she had found him to be a humble gentleman and a family guy. During an interview with the sportskeeda, Dipika had shared how she had fallen for him and had said:
“It was February 2013, and I had just won a tournament in Canada while Dinesh was playing domestic cricket in India. I went to Leeds (England) to train for a week and I found him there, coming all the way to see me. That was when I fell for him, realising not many would do something like that. He used to watch me train at the academy and even tried his hand at squash. He played much better than I thought.”
Dinesh Karthik had proposed to Dipika Pallikal in London after the Indian team had won the champions trophy. It was on November 15, 2013, when Dinesh and Dipika had made their relationship official after exchanging rings with each other in Chennai, in the presence of their family members and close friends. In an interview with IANS, Dipika had talked about their engagement and had said:
"I agree things have moved really fast, but it has happened for our good. Both of us have busy careers ahead and we wanted to formalise our relationship with the engagement."
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Dinesh Karthik and Dipika Pallikal were supposed to get married in 2014. However, owing to their busy schedules, the wedding was pushed to 2015. Later, Dinesh and Dipika had two weddings - a Christian wedding on August 18, 2015, followed by a Hindu style Telugu wedding on August 20, 2015.
On October 28, 2021, Dipika and Dinesh were blessed with twin babies. They had taken to their respective Instagram handles and had posted adorable glimpses of their baby boys. In the pictures, we could see Dinesh and Dipika, holding their boys in their arms. Alongside it, the doting couple had announced the name of their twins in a heartfelt caption, which could be read as:
"And just like that, 3 became 5. Dinesh and I are very humbled to have been blessed with two beautiful baby boys, Kabir Pallikal Karthik & Zian Pallikal Karthik, and we could not be happier."
According to sportskeeda, Dinesh Karthik’s net worth in 2021 is Rs. 80 crores. He gets Rs. 1 crore from BCCI as a part of the player retainer contract each year as he is a part of the Grade C category. For his 14 years long career in IPL as a part of the Delhi Daredevils team, he has earned more than Rs. 75 crores. He also works for the brands, Zandu Balm, Venus, Khadim India Ltd., and Blackberrys. He owns a house in Chennai worth Rs. 6 crores, where he stays with his family.
Despite a brutal betrayal by his first wife, Nikita Vanjara and his friend, Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik did not lose hope or give up on friendship or love. Giving love and friendship a second chance, he found Dipika Pallikal and the two have proved what soulmates look like. On the other hand, we are happy that Nikita and Murali also found their love and started their happy life together.
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