"Why doesn't anyone talk about...," Divya Agarwal talks about misogyny and hateful narrative [Exclusive]

Divya Agarwal's personal life has always been subject to scrutiny but the 'Cartel' actor has stood her ground and fought her own battles. In an exclusive chat with IBT India, Divya shared that she is grateful to her fiance Apurva Padgaonkar who has been a pillar of strength in the difficult times this past year. While Divya has maintained silence and hasn't revealed the reason behind the breakup to date, trolls continue to fill in the blanks with their own fictionalized version of events.

"Sometimes the pain behind happy pictures isn't visible to these faceless trolls. While I ignore them most of the time, they do bother after a point and that's when one needs to break their silence," said Divya. The 'Abhay' actor said, "Why does society blame only women for the ending of a relationship? In my opinion, it's sometimes the best decision to part away when the relationship becomes the cause of unhappiness and I did the same. For the benefit of society, women have long put aside their self-respect and interests. She is made to feel guilty or labeled as a rebel if she thinks about herself."

Worked really hard

"Is my identity only my romantic relationships? All I know is I have worked really hard to be where I am today. There have been many important male actors who have supported me in my career like Tanuj Virwani, Karan Kundra, Shakti Arora, Suyyash Rai, Parth Samthaan, Asim Riyaz, Rajit Dev, Mohsin Khan, Terence Lewis, and more. Why doesn't anyone talk about their contribution in my life?," Divya sternly said.

Divya added, "And I have no shame in accepting that I have 'used' my father's help and counseling to achieve my goals." The trolls have been using derogatory terms like gold-digger for Divya Agarwal since her break-up and engagement with Apurva Padgaonkar. They've also called her fiance 'Sugar Daddy' because he runs four restaurants in Mumbai. The fans have behaved with troubling but predictable misogyny, according to Divya. The MTV Splitsvilla contestant highlights that it is hateful and wrong to simply force a narrative that simply doesn't exist.

Now engaged

"It is easy to target a woman. Well, call me a food digger! And anyway, I always aspired to be a sugar mommy!" Divya chuckled in conversation with IBT India. "I am now engaged. Moved on as I chose my peace. I cannot fathom why would someone want to answer a question from the past to promote their show. It's extremely tough to move on but if you choose to stay where you are unhappy, that's tough anyway. Instead, release yourself and your significant other to find peace in other things life gave us," Divya told IBT India.

Divya concluded by saying, "I am only grateful to Apurva who has been patient and understanding. He doesn't want to indulge in conversations about my past and I personally want to live in the present and focus on my future."

Divya got engaged to Apurva Padgonkar on December 6, two days after the former's birthday. An engineer-turned-businessman Apurva Padgaonkar is a restaurateur with four restaurants in Mumbai.

On the work front, Divya Agarwal recently featured in the song 'Resham Ka Rumal' which has already garnered over 10 million views on YouTube. She made her acting debut with the horror web series 'Ragini MMS Returns 2' and was seen in the critically-acclaimed series 'Cartel'.

She is now gearing up for two new music videos with Parth Samthaan and Mohsin Khan. When we tried asking her about the movie projects, Divya said, "Something is in the pipeline," and chose to stay tight-lipped about it.