SA media publish baby Vamika's pictures online, irked parents Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli say caught off guard

Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma and cricketer Virat Kohli, who are currently in South Africa along with their daughter for the ongoing India-SA series, issued a statement on Monday morning after pictures of their one-year-old Vamika started doing the rounds on social media.

Several accounts on Instagram and Twitter started circulating pictures of Sharma holding her daughter Vamika as they stood inside a private stand cheering for Kohli during the ongoing cricket match in South Africa.

The picture shows Vamika's face, which, so far, has not been revealed to paparazzi by her protective parents.


As the pictures leaked online, Sharma and Kohli took to their official Instagram handles to urge people to not spread it and said that they were caught off guard and didn't realise that a camera was watching them.

"Hi guys! We realise that our daughter’s images were captured at the stadium yesterday and widely shared thereafter. We want to inform everyone that we were caught off guard and didn’t know that the camera was on us," Sharma and Kohli said.

Since the birth of their baby, the couple has been very protective of their daughter in the media and have, in the past, requested everyone to not post pictures of the toddler who was born on January 11, 2021.

In the latest statement, the Bollywood star clarified that their no-coverage stand regarding Vamika stays.

"Our stance and request on the matter stays the same. We would really appreciate (it) if Vamika’s images are not clicked/published for reasons we have explained earlier. Thank you," her statement added.

Pictures and videos of the one-year-old Vamika started doing the rounds on social media for the first time after a broadcaster of the ongoing India-South Africa series captured the unwary actress and her daughter.

This angered the couple's fans on the Internet as well.

"Well, honestly it was terrible thing of them to do that by not respecting the privacy they needed!" a fan wrote on one of the pictures on Instagram.

"Plz respect their privacy and delete this," "Plz don't do that hide her face then share it," tweeted other fans on the microblogging site.

In the initial statement issued months after the birth of their baby, Sharma and Kohli said that they had decided not expose their child to social media and keep her away from the limelight adding that when she grows up, she can make her own choices.

"We have decided as a couple to not expose our child to social media before she has an understanding of what social media is and can make her own choice," the couple had said.

Sharma and Kohli had also thanked the media in India for their sensitivity towards Vamika and following Sharma and Kohli's request.

"We are deeply thankful to the Indian paparazzi and most of the media fraternity for not publishing pictures/videos of Vamika. As parents, our request to the few who carried the images/video will be to support us going forward. We seek privacy for our child and would like to do our best to give her a chance to live her life freely away from media and social media," Sharma had previously said in her thank-you note, adding that as their daughter gets older, the pictures will out anyway as they can't restrict her movement.

"As she is older we cannot restrict her movement and hence your support is needed so kindly practice restraint in the matter. A special thank you to fan clubs and people on the internet for going out of your way to not post images. It was kind and highly mature of you," she had said.