Gauri and Shah Rukh / Instagram/gaurikhan

They met at a common friend's party and 18- year-old Shah Rukh Khan immediately lost his heart to the ninth standard Loreto Convent student, Gauri Chhibber, who, to his great discomfort, was dancing with another boy. 

When he finally mustered up the courage to ask her for a dance, the pretty schoolgirl broke his heart, turning him down saying, "I'm waiting for my boyfriend." He later discovered that her boyfriend was actually her brother.

He couldn't be brushed off and eventually Gauri agreed to go with Shah Rukh to Delhi's Panchsheel Club. When Vikrant Chhibber, who's just a year-and-a-half older than his kid sister, learnt this, he wanted to kill her date. 

"I'm going to bash you to pulp," he would frequently mutter as the couple drew closer. To his exasperation the other guy, who was older and bigger, was maddeningly unconcerned, "Yeah, yeah, whatever." Once Vikrant even pointed a gun at him, but he still couldn't keep Shah Rukh away from the girl of his dreams. Gauri's parents, Savita and Colonel Ramesh Chandra Chhibber, were equally unhappy with her choice of beau. 

They came from a conservative, Punjabi, Hindu family, her father even had a mandir at home. They didn't care for this Muslim boy who had lost his father to cancer when he was only 15 and had been brought up by his mother whom he worshiped, neither did they care about his fickle first love - acting. They refused to hand her over to a man with a dimpled smile and an uncertain future. 

But when Colonel Chhibber forbade Shah Rukh from seeing his daughter he crashed Gauri’s birthday party in the guise of his Fauji character Abhimanyu. He was recognized and mobbed before he ran off.

Eventually, it was Gauri who broke off with Shah Rukh, torn between her loyalty to her family and her love for a man who was getting a little too possessive for her comfort. He wouldn't let her wear white shirts because he thought you could see through them. He wouldn't let her wear her hair loose. He wouldn't let her speak to other boys, even her friends. 

Shah Rukh later admitted on Simi Garewal's show Rendezvous that since they had to stay under the radar, there was no sense of ownership which is what made him behave like a dog. Beginning to feel stifled, Gauri took off to Bombay (now Mumbai) with some friends a day after spending her birthday with Shah Rukh. For a couple of days, he moped around, then his mother gave him some money and told him to go after his girl. 
With his friends, he searched for her, from the Gateway of India to Haji Ali, believing that's where the city ended. When money ran out, they started bunking on benches outside the Taj Mahal Hotel and were even pulled up by the cops. Eventually, his friends convinced Shah Rukh to abandon this wild goose's search and return home.

They hired a cab with the last of their money and he asked the driver, a Sardar, if there were any other beaches in Bombay besides Chowpatty. The driver rattled off several names and Shah Rukh told him to drive him there as Gauri loved the sea. 

He finally found her partying with some friends at Gorai Beach, none too pleased to see him. She had come to Bombay to put some distance between them, but he wouldn't leave without her. This break had only proved that she was the girl for him. Gauri also admitted she had missed him and back in the capital, they quietly took up from where they had left off. 

She completed high school, graduated in history, did a six- month course in fashion design from NIFT while Shah Rukh moved from stage to television and then the big screen. Then, a week before his serial, Circus, was to start airing, his mother, who had been his anchor all his life, was rushed to the ICU with multi-organ failure. 

Sitting by her bedside, he watched her slip away, trying desperately to make her stay by reminding her she had not seen his show yet and warning her that if she died, he would be really unhappy and not look after his sister Shehnaz, would start drinking, hoping that would stop her. It didn't. She simply looked at him for a long time, then shut her eyes and silently exited the world. 

After her untimely demise, Shah Rukh was lost, lonely and broken. The only ones left to love were an aunt and uncle, his sister and Gauri who was in Delhi while films had brought him to Bombay. He spent all the money he earned on plane tickets, flying down frequently to see her, pleading with her to marry him. 

He was terrified that the magazines would link him with his co-stars, she would read these stories and leave him again. But at 22 she was not ready for marriage and turned him down several times till he confided that he had been offered some big films, but would refuse them if she wouldn't move to Mumbai with him. That's when she finally relented and said "yes" to his proposal. 

He was delighted, but he still had to win over her parents because like Raj and Simran in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, they refused to elope. Shah Rukh took it upon himself to get her father's blessings only after which, on October 23, 1991, he came with band, baaja, baraat and took his dulhania home after eight years of courtship. Years later, he told a fan, "Bhai love aur luck kabhi bhi aa jaate hai, both came early with Gauri." 
Gauri wasn't asked to convert to Islam, wear a burqa or a hijab. She retained her name and religion, and has celebrated Holi, Diwali and Eid with her family all these years. Initially, she showed little interest in films, but in 2002, she joined hands with her husband to revive his defunct banner Dreamz Unlimited. 

Starting with the Farah Khan directed Main Hoon Naa, she has produced all the films made under Red Chillies Entertainment. Twenty-two years later, their production and distribution company is thriving, with a visual effects studio, a color grading studio, a motion control studio, a digital imaging technician studio and a studio for TV commercials. It also owns several cricket teams in different leagues, including Kolkata Knight Riders which lifted the IPL trophy last season. 

In 2013, Gauri herself started a design studio in Mumbai, Gauri Khan Designs. Three years later, designed a fashion collection titled 'Cocktails and Dreams' for Satya Paul. She's also written a book, started a concept store, has several exciting projects in the pipeline and in 2018 made Fortune magazine's list of '50 Most Powerful Women in the World' while Time Magazine in 2023 named SRK one of the most influential people in the world. 

However, the couple's biggest wealth is their three children, 27-year-old Aryan, 24-year-old Suhana and 11-year-old AbRam. Aryan will be debuting with a series, Showtime, produced by his parents, with him as the showrunner, writer and director. Suhana, who kickstarted her acting career with The Archies, will soon be seen with her father in a film titled King. 

AbRam is still studying while their mother is King Khan's Queen even after 33 years. Last year, on February 20, during a Q-and-A session with fans on X, when asked the secret of their married life, Shah Rukh stated simply, "Gauri has the most simple heart and mind. She has just kept us all believing in the goodness of family and love."