Privacy Breach And More: Why Can't We Let Celebrities Have Their Me Time?

The worst part of being a celebrity is that they are constantly in the eyes of the public. Whatever decisions they take, whether in professional or private life, are measured against the yardstick of how it affects the public. The public, media and trolls get to decide whether public figure deserves hate or love based on the decisions they make. But as far as decisions in professional life are concerned, celebrities too welcome criticism (mind you, not hate). But what explains the breach of their privacy when the public troll them for the decisions and steps they take in their private life? Whether a celebrity or not, a human deserves the right to have a private life completely separated from a public or professional life. Why is it so difficult for people to understand this? Why does the public interfere in celebrities' private lives and make speculations about their present or future? Why can't people just let celebrities be?

As rumours about the divorce of Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik are gaining ground, people have started sensationalising their decisions. Many speculations are being made to clarify whether they are really getting divorced or not. Some have already assumed that they are divorced and are criticising them individually. They are judging the couple’s decision of getting married in the first place if they had to part ways in the end. The biggest target of the audience is Sania Mirza. People are constantly judging her for marrying a man from Pakistan. She is being trolled and asked to not return to India.

But dear society, who are you to judge their private lives? Who are you to decide whether their decisions are right or not? Why can’t they be provided with privacy and some me time? Why can’t their private lives be free of public scrutiny? Why can’t society just let them be?

In fact, the couple has now announced that they are going to host a reality show together. There is no word from either of them about divorce. The public should have waited for the couple to confirm their divorce before trolling them. The public's impatience and the rush to speculate about celebrities' private lives led to fake news flooding the internet. It created a lot of confusion which further led to the couple receiving hate from the viewers on the internet for no reason. But what did we gain from all this? Nothing but the confirmation that we are obsessed with celebrities' private lives. That we are more interested in poking noses in other's business rather than minding our own.

A similar situation is with Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor. Since the couple welcomed their first kid, the paps, media and fans are obsessed to see the kid and know about the couple's experience. People fail to realise that the couple, and especially Alia Bhatt, have just gone through a big event in their life. They need me time to relax and settle down before they appear in public to answer the questions of their fans.

Our society fails to understand that celebrities’ privacy in their personal life is as much important as their popularity in public life. A celebrity doesn’t lose the right to privacy just because their work is all about fame. There is a fine line of difference between private life and public life. We all learn lessons of not mixing private life with work life. We learn to maintain a difference and balance between the two. However, when it comes to celebrities, this difference is ignored and their private life is mixed with their work life. The reason behind all this is the fact that we fail to understand that celebrities are humans too. Just like us, they too have to differentiate between private and work life. And it is just not fair on the side of society to ignore this fact.

Moreover, just because celebrities’ work is all about popularity, it is not right to use their private life as a weapon for that. Celebrities should be famous for their work and not for their private life.

So let us stop judging ">celebrities’ lives as if they are movies open for public watch and scrutiny. They deserve the right to keep their private matters away from their work life just like many of us do. Moreover, they have the right to have me time away from the questions and criticism of the public. Just imagine, how would you feel if your boss comes home with you and keeps a watch on you the entire time. How would you feel if your boss demands discipline and work even after office time? You would certainly not like it. Similarly, celebrities too dislike the public encroaching upon their private lives and not letting them relax for some time.

There is a need for us to be empathetic towards celebrities and their private lives. We need to understand that just like us they are common people when they go back home after work. And as we let common people deal with their lives on their own, we should let celebrities too have that freedom.

Views expressed are the author's own.