Kapadia separated from Khanna in April 1982 and returned with her two daughters to her parents' house. She returned to acting two years later. In a 1985 interview with "India Today", she remarked, "The life and happiness in our house came to an end the day I and Rajesh got married", saying her unhappy marital experience had included inequality and her husband's infidelity, and called their marriage "a farce". The hostility between Khanna and Kapadia, who were never officially divorced, subsided over the years; despite not having ever reunited, they were seen together at parties; Kapadia acted opposite Khanna in his unreleased film "Jai Shiv Shankar" in 1990 and campaigned for his election to the Indian National Congress a year later. Her daughters similarly became actresses and retired after settling down. Her elder daughter Twinkle is married to the actor Akshay Kumar. Asked in "Filmfare" in 2000 whether she would want to remarry, Kapadia said: "I'm very happy and content... once was more than enough". Khanna fell ill in early 2012, and Kapadia stayed by his side and took care of him until his death on 18 July that year. She was with him when he died and said his loss, along with the deaths of her sister Simple and her brother, left her feeling "truly abandoned".