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On the latest episode of the final season of Koffee With Karan, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan, the guests for the episode, discussed publicly for the first time the night of January 16, 2025, when Khan was stabbed at their residence in Mumbai.
Appearing together on the fourth episode of Koffee With Karan Season 9, which premiered on November 4, the couple detailed the night's events, discussed the aftermath, and addressed the controversy surrounding the tragedy with host Karan Johar.
Khan opened up about the attack itself, explaining that his response to fight the actor primarily arose from an instinct to protect his son. The intruder was standing over the couple's son, Jehangir Ali Khan (Jeh), with a knife. He mentioned with a chuckle that perhaps he felt the need to attack the intruder due to the influence of Hindi cinema.
"It's all happening too quickly. I think, perhaps because of Hindi cinema, I attacked him in the first place. I was outraged that he was standing over my son with a [weapon]. Can't get over how lucky I was."
Recalling trying to seek help after the attack, which took place in the late hours of the night, Kapoor explained that she was shouting on the road for an auto rickshaw to help her husband to the hospital.
"I was screaming on the road. I was like, 'Stop, stop.' It was like a movie scene. I didn’t have the time to put on my pyjamas. I was in my t-shirt, running like a mad, crazy woman trying to get a rickshaw while he was bleeding."
Kapoor recounted terrifying moments where she worried she would lose Khan. "I looked at Saif in the lift, and when I saw him I was like, "Saif, don't do this." She remembered their son, Taimur Ali Khan, a nine-year-old, asking his father whether he would die. "The first thing Tim (Taimur) said was, 'Abba are you going to die?'" Kapoor revealed.
Khan shared that despite the injuries, he knew he would make it, despite deep cuts from the knife attack. The actor was taken to Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai in an auto rickshaw, accompanied by Taimur and a person named Hari. The injuries from the stabbing led to heavy bleeding and the attack to the spinal cord resulted in the actor losing some feeling in his leg before reaching the hospital.
He further revealed that during the stabbing, the knife used by the attacker broke, leaving a piece of the knife lodged in his body. The actor joked that had the knife have been one of a better quality, he would not have survived the attack. "I felt there was something in my back, and there was this chunk of knife that had broken off. It was the worst knife in the history of knives. If it had been a slightly good knife, I would be dead. But it was such a bad knife that it broke."
With the piece of the knife still lodged in the body, the doctors revealed that had it moved even a millimetre, Khan would not have survived. She added, "They had to move his nerves to take out the knife in his back, in his spine."
The couple reflected on the response from family and friends, especially from Khan's children, Ibrahim Ali Khan and Sara Ali Khan. "They were there when I woke up after my operation, and Ibrahim was very upset. I don't normally see him express in that way, but he was in tears. Feeling very angry, wanting to defend [us] and catch that fellow."
In the months that followed, Kapoor recalled having trouble sleeping at night for close to six months after the attack. Despite Khan's successful recovery, the incident deeply impacted the family. "It's been the worst," Kapoor said.
Following Khan's recovery, his composed demeanour while leaving the hospital had led to countless online theories regarding the truth of the attack. Johar brought up the theories, stating, "You were so composed and elegant when you came out of hospital that it spun a different narrative online. And then there was an array of conspiracy theories, which were ridiculous."
One such theory questioned why the family's driver did not take the actor to the hospital. Khan recollected, "People couldn't understand why there was no driver at home. Why not? He goes home to his family in the evening."