New Delhi: Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan revisited the knife attack at their Bandra residence on the latest episode of Koffee With Karan. The couple addressed the 16 January 2025 incident for the first time; they also talked about the family’s reaction and the conspiracy theories that followed. However, the most heart-wrenching moment was when their nine-year-old son, Taimur, asked Saif, “Abba, are you going to die?”
The actor returned to the Koffee couch together after 16 years. They last appeared together in 2010, during season three of the show, before their wedding.
Recalling the moment he regained consciousness after his operation, Saif shared his elder son Ibrahim’s reaction.
“Ibrahim was very upset, and I don’t normally see him express himself in that way. But he was in tears and feeling very angry and wanting to defend and catch that fellow,” the actor said.
Host Karan Johar also brought up the theories surrounding the attack, pointing out that Saif’s composed appearance after being discharged from the hospital had fuelled an array of conspiracies online. Saif acknowledged the speculation, adding that the most bizarre allegation was that his wife, Kareena, had stabbed him.
Saif also addressed questions about why their driver wasn’t around that night and how he got to the hospital. Explaining that their driver had gone home to be with his family, he clarified that he did not drive himself to the hospital. His son Taimur, accompanied by their house help Hari, took him there.
Kareena, meanwhile, recalled the frantic moments after the attack, revealing that she had rushed out of the house in her nightwear to find an autorickshaw for Saif, who was bleeding.
“Luckily, no one got that video. I am in by T-shirt screaming, ‘Ruko, ruko (Stop, Stop)!’ It was like a movie scene,” she said.
Kareena also remembered seeing her husband bleeding in the elevator and telling him, “Saif, don’t do this.”
She then recalled their son, who was present with them, asking his father, “Abba, are you going to die?”
Saif recalled giving Kareena a look that said he needed to be taken to the hospital.
The couple also spoke about how their younger son Jeh processed the incident. Kareena said that he had witnessed the attack and later gave Saif his plastic sword, telling him, “Next time that thief comes, use this.”
Saif added that Jeh now thinks of him as a “great protector”.
Reflecting on the severity of his injuries, Saif described the weapon used in the attack as “the worst knife in the history of knives”.
He explained that a piece of the broken blade had remained lodged in his back, dangerously close to his spine.
“If it had been a slightly good knife, I would be dead,” he said, adding that the injury had affected his spine and caused him to lose some sensation in his leg.
Kareena further recalled that doctors had to move Saif’s nerves to remove the knife. The actor was just one millimetre away from suffering paralysis.
Saif underwent emergency surgery at Lilavati Hospital after sustaining multiple stab wounds.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)