Just as we started to move on from cursed lesbian bar discourse, I regret to inform you that another controversy has rocked the overly online queer internet.
Over the weekend, influencer couple Anjali Chakra and Sufi Malik announced that they had called off their wedding weeks before the fact after Malik publicly admitted that she had cheated on Chakra. But for the unaware, who are they? What exactly went down between them? And why has it all gone so viral?
Read on to learn more.
Who are Anjali and Sufi?
Chakra and Malik are influencers who first gained a following back in July 2019, after a photoshoot that the California-based couple had done for South Asian designer clothing rental service Borrow the Bazaar went viral. A tweet that photographer Sarowar shared of the shoot received over 42,700 likes, with people celebrating the photos’ depiction of a queer, South Asian, interfaith love story — Malik is Muslim and Pakistani, and Chakra is Hindu and Indian.
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In a 2020 interview with Business Insider, the couple shared that they initially met on Tumblr, where they followed each other for seven years before meeting up and becoming a couple in July 2018.
“I DM’d Sufi one day asking if we could talk about her experience as a queer South Asian woman, and she agreed,” Chakra told the outlet. “Eventually, we met in New York, where Sufi lived at the time.”
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That same month, the couple went viral once again after sharing their one-year anniversary photoshoot.
“I grew up witnessing and watching different kinds of love, some in my family and some in Bollywood,” Malik wrote on Instagram. “After I got a little older and realized what my sexuality was, I never saw representation of people who looked like me. I’m so glad I have the opportunity to be that with the love of my life.”
Why did Anjali and Sufi break up?
On Sunday, March 24, Chakra and Malik announced their break up on social media via coordinated posts. They shared that they broke up shortly before their planned wedding due to infidelity on Malik’s part.
“Hey everyone, there has been a major turn of events in my relationship with Anjali,” Malik wrote in an Instagram post that day. “I made an unrecognizable mistake of betrayal by cheating on her a few weeks before our wedding. I’ve hurt her tremendously, beyond my own understanding. I’m owning up to my mistake and will continue to do so. I understand the gravity of the situation and can only ask relentlessly for forgiveness, from Anjali and Allah.
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“As we close this chapter, I wish for absolutely no negativity to be shown towards Sufi, and that you respect this difficult decision,” Chakra wrote in her own separate statement. “What we have shared has been so full of love and nothing short of magical — I will choose to remember it this way.”
She also shouted out the former couple’s followers, writing, “Since the beginning, your outpouring of love and support has played such a special part in our journey and we will continue to carry that love with us moving forward.”
Chakra also wrote that she wishes for “absolutely no negativity to be shown towards Sufi,” and for her followers to “respect this difficult decision.”
Why did the breakup go viral?
Chakra and Malik both have fairly large followings: both have over 220,000 Instagram followers, and their joint YouTube channel currently has over 136,000 subscribers. Given that they’ve been open about planning their wedding since getting engaged in September 2022 and posted about going wedding dress shopping as recently as last month, the news that their relationship had ended so dramatically just weeks before their wedding unsurprisingly came as a huge shock to people who had been following their journey for years. The story gained even more momentum when news of their breakup was reported by outlets like E!, Indian Express, and Pink News.
“Oomf said this is like 9/11 for south asian queer community and so real bc wtf man,” one Instagram user wrote.
“As a South Asian who has never found queer representation and comfort in our community, Sufi and Anjali were the two people who we’ve closely looked up to and now they’ve broken up too :(,” one X user tweeted.
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