Former beauty queen and Bollywood actress Celina Jaitley has shared a deeply emotional and raw update on her ongoing legal battles and painful separation from her children. Caught in a very complex, multi-jurisdictional divorce and custody dispute spanning India and Austria with her estranged husband, Austrian businessman Peter Haag, the actress posted a nostalgic video of her three sons, Winston, Viraaj and Arthur. In a vulnerable open letter, Jaitly rejected the common social trope that “trauma breeds strength”, detailing how the painful situation has repeatedly broken him and left invisible scars. This emotional outcry comes close on the heels of the Bombay Police register an FIR against Haag under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for alleged domestic cruelty, physical violence and criminal intimidation.
Celina Jaitly shares a video with her children
The actress posted an old video on Instagram of herself enjoying time with her children in happier times. The clip carried a text overlay expressing her longing to be reunited with her children, which read: “I never thought broken pieces could be broken until I saw my heart. I miss you my 3 children. I hope divine intervention to have you 3 back in my life.”
Celina Jaitly says trauma didn’t make her strong
Alongside the video, Celina wrote a lengthy note reflecting on how trauma has shaped her life and the ongoing effort involved in healing emotional pain. It opened by pushing back the common notion that suffering inevitably creates strength. “The strongest people are usually the ones who are still breaking. People call me strong. But pain and trauma didn’t make me strong. They broke me, over and over again, until I had no choice but to learn to heal,” she wrote.
Celina Jaitly believes that healing is an ongoing process
The actress went on to explain that healing is not something that happens just once. She shared that even when she feels like she’s found her footing again, painful memories tend to resurface unexpectedly, reopening wounds she thought she’d closed. During those times, she said she chooses to withdraw from the surrounding noise and focus on getting through the pain rather than avoiding it. By leaving this space, slowly pick up the broken pieces and begin the healing process again.Celina went on to say that the trauma had stolen parts of her identity, leaving behind wounds that are not visible to others. He noted that while people tend to attribute their resilience to the hardships they’ve faced, they see it differently. “Trauma didn’t build me. It broke me. It stole parts of me, left scars no one could see, and grieved versions of myself I’ll never fully recover. The strength people admire was never born of pain. It came from me,” he wrote.In closing, the actress noted that true strength comes from repeatedly choosing to heal, even while still in emotional pain. He added that the strongest individuals are not those who never break down, but those who continue to find the courage to pull themselves back together, even in the midst of constant injury.
Celina Jaitly’s marriage and custody battle with Peter Haag
Jaitly married Austrian businessman Peter Haag in 2010, having taken a step back from mainstream Bollywood before marriage. The couple had twins in 2012 and welcomed a second set of twins in 2017, though one of the babies sadly didn’t survive beyond birth. Reports last year suggested that Peter Haag had filed for divorce in an Austrian court. Celina has since said that even with shared custody, she has been unable to contact her three sons Winston, Arthur and Viraaj with the custody dispute also playing out alongside separate legal proceedings.
FIR lodged against Peter Haag
In a recent development, the Mumbai police filed an FIR against Peter Haag after Celina lodged a complaint against him. He has reportedly been detained in various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for alleged physical violence, cruelty, criminal intimidation and continued harassment.