Ratan Tata: Close to marriage four times

Among India?s most eligible bachelor?s even at the age of 73, industrialist Ratan Tata was ?seriously close to getting married? at least four times.

In a rare insight into his personal life, particularly love life, Tata spoke candidly about the ways of his heart.

In an interview to news channel CNN, Tata said he had been in serious love four times.

?I came seriously close to getting married four times and each time it got close to there and I guess I backed off in fear or for one reason or another,? he said.

?Each of the occasions was different, but in hindsight when I look at the people involved; it wasn’t a bad thing what I did. I think it may have been more complex had the marriage taken place,? he added.

The closest call was in the 60s decade when Indo-China war proved to be the dampener in the otherwise-fixed wedding with his US lover.

?Probably the most serious was when I was working in the US and the only reason we didn’t get married was that I came back to India and she was to follow me and that was the year of the, if you like, the Indo-Chinese conflict and in true American fashion this conflict in the Himalayas, in the snowy, uninhabited part of the Himalayas was seen in the United States as a major war between India and China and so, she didn’t come and finally got married in the US thereafter,? Tata said.

The Tata empire is searching for an heir after Ratan Tata announced of retiring in December 2012, when he will turn 75.