Business tycoon, philanthropist and former Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata breathed his last in Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai, at the age of 86. While his professional and social life is known worldwide, his private life largely remained under wraps.
Let's uncover a story about his marriage and love life that only a few know of.
In an interview with CNN, Tata once revealed that he came close to marrying four times but opted out each time due to "fear".
"I came seriously close to getting married four times and each time I backed off in fear or for one reason or another. Each occasion was different, but in hindsight when I look at the people involved; it wasn’t a bad thing what I did. I think it may have been more complex had the marriage taken place," Ratan Tata said.
When he fell "deeply" in love with an American woman
The business tycoon went on to reveal that he fell "deeply" in love with an American woman while he was working in Los Angeles. In 1962, he had to return to India as his grandmother had fallen sick. Meanwhile, the girl's parents were opposed to her moving to India, given the then-Indo-China conflict.
"I was probably the most serious when I was working in the US and the only reason we didn’t get married was that I came back to India and she was to follow me. That was the year of the Indo-Chinese conflict. This conflict in the snowy, uninhabited part of the Himalayas was seen in the United States as a major war between India and China and so, she didn’t come and finally got married in the US thereafter," he said.
What did Tata say about his bachelor life?
In an old interview with Simi Grewal, Ratan Tata opened up on his bachelor life and said that there were times when he had felt lonely about not having a wife or children.
"I don't know what motivates me but let me just stay with that for a minute. There are many times I feel lonely at not having a wife or family and sometimes, I long for it. But sometimes, I enjoy the freedom of not having to worry about the feelings of someone else or the concerns of someone else," he said.
