Mahesh and Lara cheated on me, claims wife

Mahesh Bhupathi's wife, model Shvetha Jaishankar has spoken up for the first time.

In this month's Savvy magazine, she reveals how her tennis ace hubby cheated on her and that he started going around with Lara Dutta even before their divorce came through.

Excerpts: Lara was not the first he was distracted by...I don't know when Mahesh met Lara Dutta but all I can say is that she was the client of our celebrity and sports management company.

And their relationship did start while we were married. And she was not the first one he was distracted by.

There were others and I have evidence, but who wants to get into the muddle now? I don't want to say anything more about Mahesh and Lara except that I wish he was sensitive enough to wait till our divorce came through, before being seen around with her so publicly.

I was nothing more than a new-age trophy wife for him...He wanted out and I co-operated because I did not want to continue in a one-sided relationship. But this is not how a person who has been a supporting wife should have been treated. Men of this kind are so overtly ambitious that they have a partner who fits in with their ambitious streak. I think I served a purpose in his life at that point of time - he wanted an educated, good looking partner from a good family but I now realise I was nothing more than a new-age trophy wife for him.

Lara probably fits in with his current plans...
Mahesh seems like he is in a frenzy, collecting trophies on and off the court and Lara probably fits in with his current plans. But again, if he did what he did to me - a woman he loved - he is capable of doing this to Lara as well.

Lara and I have been acquaintances...
Lara and I did shows together. So, in that sense, we've been acquaintances. I even recall initiating talks to bring her in as a client of our company. I remember Mahesh telling me that client relationships should be handled by our managers and not by him or me and that it was not professional for the directors of the company to be so close to them! Was it his way of distancing from his intentions? I will never know.

He never wanted to talk about what went wrong with him and Leander Paes...Regarding the whole Leander -Mahesh issue, people say it's such a tragedy for the country that they are not together. People always wanted to know what went wrong between Leander and him and he never wanted to talk about it. As a wife, even though in a sense I should have known everything about it, there are some lines that shouldn't be crossed.

I felt this was a sensitive topic for him, so I never really asked him much. But very recently he made a comment saying: "You know I am going to play with Sania and the day Sania and I win a Grand Slam, the world will forget Leander."

I wondered where this arrogance came from because it's not about forgetting Leander, but also about remembering you. He is an achiever, no doubt, but so are Leander and Sania. Where was the competitive spirit? That was a poignant instance when I discovered that he had changed.