9 Months After His Second Marriage, Imran Khan Announces Divorce

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan parts way with his wife of nine months.

In this Friday, Nov. 21, 2014 file photo, Pakistan’s cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan gestures during an anti-government rally in Larkana, Pakistan. (Photo: AP)

Pakistan cricket legend-turned-politician Imran Khan and his second wife Reham are filing for divorce. Both announced the separation on their respective Twitter handles.

Imran Khan and former television anchor Reham Khan were married for nine months. He had lived alone for 11 years following his divorce from his first wife, Briton Jemima Goldsmith.

In this Friday, Jan. 9, 2015 file photo, Pakistan’s cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and is seen with Reham Khan. (Photo: AP)

Reham, a little known journalist endured criticism on social media from conservative Muslim Pakistanis after her marriage to Khan became public and pictures and videos surfaced of her on-screen in Western outfits.

Imran Khan, who developed a playboy reputation in his younger days, built a political power base in Pakistan’s deeply conservative north.

His party became the country’s third largest in a 2013 election after he advocated talks with Pakistani Taliban insurgents and criticised the United States for drone strikes in militant areas.

In this Friday, Jan. 9, 2015 file photo, Pakistan’s cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, fourth from front, and his newly-wed wife Reham Khan, third from right, sit with religious students at a local madrassa, or seminary, in Islamabad. (Photo: AP)

Khan’s party spokesman, Naeem ul Haque, said in a television interview the divorce had been finalised with the consent of both parties.

Rumours of the end of the marriage first circulated in August when Reham was campaigning to support a candidate from her husband’s party in a by-election.

The candidate lost the vote and later Imran announced that his wife would not have a political career with his party.

Khan’s previous marriage to British socialite Jemima Khan, the daughter of the financier James Goldsmith, ended in 2004. Khan’s political rivals used the marriage to attack Khan by emphasising her Jewish roots.