Samir Soni had a panick attack on his first date with Neelam Kothari: ‘You made me so nervous’ |

Neelam Kothari may have stepped away from films, but she continues to remain in the spotlight through Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives and her recently launched YouTube channel. In one of her latest videos, the actress and her husband, actor Samir Soni, looked back on the early days of their romance and revealed an amusing detail about their first date — one that never led to a second outing for years.During a lunch date featured on her channel, Samir asked Neelam if she remembered their first date. Laughing, she responded, “Yes, I remember. I can never forget it. You say, I want to see if you remember.”Samir then recalled the memorable encounter, saying, “I remember very well. I don’t remember which coffee shop we went to. Right after reaching there, I got a panic attack and was drenched in sweat. We were drinking coffee, that’s why I asked you if we could sit in the car. You made me so nervous on our first date itself.”Neelam went on to reveal that despite eventually getting married, the couple had only been on one proper date before this recent outing. “Sameer and I have only been on one date. We’ve gone on a date once, and this is the second one. Yes, we go out with Ahana (daughter) and that’s fine, but our romantic dinner date only happened once,” she shared.Joining in, Samir added with a smile, “She used to only talk over the phone for around three months, and then I asked her to meet at least.”Earlier, Samir had spoken about how his relationship with Neelam began. Appearing on Ujjawal Trivedi’s YouTube channel in 2024, he revealed that a tarot card reader had once predicted that the woman he would eventually marry would have a name beginning with the letter N and would be associated with jewellery.“I met someone who was a tarot card reader. I don’t know if she paid him. That person told me that there will be a woman in my life whose name starts with an N and she would be working in jewellery,” he recalled.The description immediately made him think of Neelam, although he dismissed it at the time as an unlikely coincidence.Reflecting on his admiration for her, Samir said, “At her time, and she still is, one of the prettiest actresses. And my friends would say she is out of your league, don’t even think about it.”Fate eventually brought them together again at a Diwali party nearly a year and a half later. It was there that Samir confessed to producer Ektaa Kapoor that he was interested in Neelam. “Ekta introduced us,” he said, adding, “I told Neelam I normally don’t say this, but I think you are very cute. Then I said I would call you and I left. I didn’t even have her number.”Samir revealed that a similar interaction happened several times before he finally gathered the courage to call her three years later. Recounting the moment, he said, “I asked myself, why am I doing this? I should just talk to her. I called her but she didn’t pick up. It was 3 am. The next morning, my ego kicked in, and I texted her. ‘You don’t believe in returning calls,’ and she texted back, ‘How do I know it is you?’”Once they began spending time together, both were certain about the future of their relationship. “If we are together, we will marry, so that’s how we looked at each other from the beginning,” Samir shared.Neelam Kothari and Samir Soni tied the knot in 2011 and later welcomed their daughter, Ahana Soni, in September 2013.