The 41-year-old actor, who married Mumbai-based businessman and gallerist Nicholai Sachdev in 2024, said she and her husband have consciously decided not to have children together.
“I personally said I am not interested in having children,” she said. Varalaxmi Sarathkumar has opened up about a deeply personal decision that many people, particularly women, are still often expected to explain: choosing not to have children. Speaking to video jockey Bharanee Suresh on Behindwoods TV, Sarathkumar made it clear that her decision is a choice, not an inability to become a mother. “It is not that I can’t have. I don’t want to have children. There is a very clear choice that I don’t want to have. My husband also doesn’t want to.”
The important point, she said, is that something can be deeply meaningful for one person without necessarily being the right choice for everyone. She noted that having a child can influence almost every aspect of life, including careers, relationships, finances, sleep, personal freedom, identity and everyday priorities. That does not mean parenthood is inherently negative or burdensome. For people who genuinely want children, raising them can be one of life’s most meaningful experiences. Perhaps the bigger change society needs is to stop treating motherhood as an inevitable destination for every woman. Asking women when they plan to have children can turn a deeply personal decision into a public expectation. Choosing to become a parent can be a conscious decision. So can you choose not to become one. As Rrajesh put it, responsible parenthood begins with understanding the magnitude of raising another human being and making that decision as consciously as possible.