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Kareena Kapoor Khan has spoken publicly for the first time about the terrifying night when her husband, actor Saif Ali Khan, was stabbed by an intruder inside their Mumbai home earlier this year. The shocking incident, which occurred in January, not only left the film industry stunned but also deeply impacted their entire family, including their two young sons, Taimur and Jeh.

Kareena Kapoor speaks about the stabbing incident

In an interview with Barkha Dutt for Mojo Story, Kareena recalled how the horrifying episode disrupted their sense of safety and normalcy. She said, “I am still kind of struggling with what it does to see someone there in your child’s room. In Mumbai, you never really hear about such incidents. It is very common in the US. In Mumbai, we have never really heard about someone walking in and attacking your husband. We have still not come to terms 100 per cent. At least I haven’t. I was very anxious for the first couple of months. It was very difficult to sleep and get back to the person with that kind of normalcy.”

Kareena likened the emotional toll to grieving a personal loss. She added, “With time, I realised that the memory fades more and more. It’s there in your heart. It is like death. When you lose someone, you never really get over it. That’s what I have always perceived – that you never really get over that but the memory fades day by day.”

Kareena shared that she had to gather strength not just for herself but also to ensure that her children didn’t absorb the fear and anxiety she was feeling. “But I don’t want to live in that fear for my children because that’s also wrong to put that stress onto them. So, it’s been a tough journey to manoeuvre from fear and anxiety to balancing the fact that I am a mother and I am also a wife. It was a combination of so much understanding that this is what I have to kind of deal with. I am just happy and thank God that we are safe. We are stronger as a unit,” she said.

Kareena on his kids Taimur and Jeh's reaction

Despite their young age, the traumatic memory left a mark on their sons. Kareena revealed that Jeh sees Saif as a superhero for standing up to the attacker. “Hope my sons grow up with resilience because they have seen their father getting stabbed. My younger one (Jeh) still says, ‘My father is Batman and Iron Man, he can take on anyone.’”

Kareena hopes that, despite the tragedy, her boys will grow up stronger and wiser. “Yes, they have seen blood and everything but I am hoping that that experience will make them different kind of men. They have been so sheltered and then they have seen this, so somehow I feel that this experience has brought them out of that sheltered life and a little more into reality that this can happen. Of course, they shouldn’t have seen this at 4 and 8 years old, but I have to look at something out of it.”

Reflecting on the aftermath, Kareena admitted the episode fundamentally changed her, but she's trying to stay grounded in gratitude. “It has shaken me to the core but I can’t live in that fear. Also we Punjabis say, ‘Bala tal gai (the calamity was averted)’ and that’s what I am believing in. I don’t think any family should see what we saw. It has been an uphill task.”

Saif Ali Khan stabbing incident

On January 16, an intruder broke into Saif Ali Khan’s Bandra residence in the early hours and managed to enter the children’s bedroom. When Saif confronted him, the man stabbed the actor. Saif was rushed to Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital where doctors discovered a spinal fluid leak and performed an intensive five-hour surgery, including spinal and plastic procedures. He was discharged on January 21.

The attacker, later identified as Mohd Shariful Islam Shehzad, had allegedly entered the house with the intent to rob.