Pankaj Tripathi and his wife Mridula share a beautiful relationship, something the actor has frequently spoken about in his interviews. In a recent interaction with Atul Taishete for his YouTube podcast, Mridula spoke about the challenges she faced in her marriage with Pankaj and how her mother-in-law still hasn’t accepted her as his wife.

While speaking about the difficulties in getting acceptance from Pankaj's family, Mridula said, “It's still not acceptable. We aren't blood relatives, but in our culture, it is unacceptable for a woman to be married into a family of a lower stature, if another woman has already been married into a family of a higher stature. And because my sister-in-law had been married above her station into my family, I couldn't be married into their family, which was considered of a lower stature.”

She added, “My mother-in-law hasn't accepted me to this day, for the reasons I mentioned earlier. She is still upset about this intermingling. But what can we do about it now?”

In an appearance at Kaun Banega Crorepati, Pankaj had spoken about his relationship with his wife.” I came to Mumbai in 2004 and Gangs of Wasseypur happened in 2012. For eight years, no one knew what I was doing. I didn't realise the hardship because my wife would teach kids, our needs were limited, we lived in a small house and she would earn so I lived easily. Mere sangarsh mein, Andheri station pe sona nahi include hua unki wajah se (I did not have to sleep at Andheri station during my days of struggle only because of her).”

The actor met Mridula during a wedding ceremony in 1993 when they were both in college. They got married on January 15, 2004. They moved to Mumbai after their marriage, and in 2006, had a daughter named Aashi Tripathi.

Pankaj was last seen in the year’s blockbuster Stree 2. In the pipeline for him is Anurag Basu’s Metro…In Dino.