New Delhi, EW News: Veteran Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik has married Pakistani actor Sana Javed amid rumours of his divorce from Indian tennis legend Sania Mirza. Malik shared the update on Saturday through a social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The post comprises pictures from their wedding ceremony with the caption: "And we created you in pairs."

Rumours of Malik dating Javed had been doing the rounds for quite a while, before the ex-Pakistan captain fuelled speculations further when he wished the actress on her birthday last year: "Happy Birthday Buddy," along with a picture of the two.

The 41-year-old had also come out in support of Javed when the Pyaare Afzal actress was slammed for an alleged rude behaviour towards juniors and make-up artists on the set. "I have known Sana Javed for quite some time now and have had the opportunity to work with her multiple times, from my personal experience I can only say that she has always been kind & courteous towards me & the people around us," Malik had tweeted back in March 2022.

Malik's wedding post came as a big surprise on either side of the border amid rumours of a divorce with Mirza. The two had gotten married in Hyderabad back in 2010 in a traditional Muslim ceremony, and later had a Walima ceremony in Sialkot, Pakistan. Malik and Mirza also have a son, Izhaan, born in 2018.

While there is no knowledge as to how the cracks in their relationship developed, it is believed to have happened sometime around the first half of 2021. Going by their social media presence, Sania and Shoaib would remain active on Instagram, regularly posting pictures and stories of the two of them together - roaming the world and posing on the beaches of Dubai with their kid. However, their movement on social media got limited over time. Last year, reports of Sania and Shoaib coming together for a TV show emerged, which eventually materialised as Spotify presented The Mirza Malik show, where the two of them hosted a bunch of celebrities over 40-minute long episodes.

Earlier on Wednesday, Sania had shared a cryptic post on her Instagram handle which reignited divorce speculations with Malik. Her post read: Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard. Obesity is hard. Being fit is hard. Choose your hard. Being in debt is hard. Being financially disciplined is hard. Choose your hard. Communication is hard. Not communicating is hard. Choose your hard. Life will never be easy. It will always be hard. But we can choose our hard. Pick wisely."

Is this Shoaib Malik's third wedding?

On record, this is Malik's second wedding. But having said that, before getting married to Sania, Malik had reportedly married Ayesha Siddiqui, although the cricketer denied it. During his wedding ceremony with Mirza, Malik was marred by allegations that he was already married. Ayesha, her family and her sister Maha had escalated the issue on national television. As per Malik's own admission, the whole chapter involving Ayesha was nothing more than an incident of fraud.

The two got in touch over phone calls in early 2000 with Ayesha introducing herself as Shoaib's fan. As the two started speaking a lot, Malik confessed that they started developing feelings for each other but everytime Shoaib wanted to meet Ayesha, she would not make herself available. In 2002, Malik came to Hyderabad to meet her, but Ayesha told him that she had to fly to Saudi Arabia urgently. Three years later, a day before Malik and his family were supposed to meet the family, they were told that Ayesha had to leave for the USA.

Ayesh though wanted Malik to have a telephonic 'Nikah', but the cricketer did not agree and instead, insisted on having a full-fledged ceremony where the families were present and could be involved. As it turned out, the girl he saw photographs of and the one he was speaking to were two different individuals. Malik had even sent a legal notice to the father MA Siddiqui but the saga did not end there. Ayesha levelled strong allegations against Shoaib, saying that the two of them had an 'intimate relationship'. She also claimed that she was pregnant at one point of their 'marriage' which ended in a miscarriage.