While J Jayalalitha, the late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, continues to be in the news for one reason or another, it may be recalled that she had opened up about her relationship with actor-friend Shoban Babu decades ago.

After her equations with MGR, her co-star and political mentor, took a beating in 1970s, Jayalalitha admittedly grew close to Shoban. It's said that Jaya started distancing herself from MGR when she felt that he was trying to control her life. After a few years, she found herself befriending Shoban, someone she found rather special.

But by then, Shoban was married to his guru's daughter. Jaya knew the constraints that her "live-in friend" faced.

By 1981, again, she was back in MGR's fold. Years later, a DMK mouthpiece would publish pictures of Jaya and Shoban in the former's home.

How did she perceive her relationship with Shoban in the end? "There is a deep-rooted attitudinal problem which can be traced to her past. She perceives all men in her life—her father, MGR, her one-time live-in friend Shoban Babu—as people who failed her. Therefore she seems to have developed a deep distrust of almost everyone," Valampuri John, a former MP, was once quoted a saying by a national magazine.