Some things should stay in the past. A relationship that ended more than a decade ago, for instance, probably does not need to be turned into trending content in 2026. But the internet has never been great at letting go, and this week it proved that point once again, pulling Brazilian model and actor Izabelle Leite back into a conversation she never asked to be part of.
Her response was short. It was tired. And honestly, it said everything.
The Post That Started It All
It began, as so many things do now, with a collage on Instagram. Someone put together a set of photos featuring four women who have been connected to Indian cricket star Virat Kohli at different points in his life, either through past relationships or through his social media activity.
The women were Izabelle Leite, his wife Anushka Sharma, Indian actor Avneet Kaur and German vlogger and content creator LizLaz.
The caption celebrated what it called Kohli’s “elite taste in women,” framing his entire romantic history as some kind of impressive achievement. It even added, “From Izabelle Leite to Anushka Sharma, elite taste is just part of the brand.”
Fans flooded the comments with laughing emojis and agreement. It was meant to be light-hearted. A compliment, even. Izabelle did not see it that way.
She replied in the comments with a weary emoji and wrote plainly, “It’s been 12 years, and counting. Why can’t people get over it?” She added a small bowing emoji at the end, as if to say she was done engaging with it entirely. Those two sentences were enough. People understood immediately.
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Why the Internet Was Talking About Kohli Again
The reason this collage appeared in the first place connects to a small moment that became a surprisingly big story. Last week, users noticed that Kohli’s Instagram account had liked a photo posted by LizLaz, a German vlogger who has been building a following through travel and lifestyle content.
Within hours, the screenshot was everywhere, and LizLaz found herself suddenly famous in India for reasons she had not expected.
She later told Hindustan Times that she genuinely had no idea it had happened until she saw the news herself. She woke up to dozens of messages and found herself mentioned across multiple platforms.
She said she felt a little sorry for Kohli when he unliked the photo, and admitted that she had no idea how a simple interaction had turned into such a large story. She said she was grateful for the attention and appreciated the support from his followers, but acknowledged that it was almost certainly not his intention for things to go this way.
Kohli himself said nothing publicly. This was a notable contrast to a similar situation back in May 2025, when he liked a photo of Avneet Kaur and the resulting viral moment prompted him to issue a clarification, explaining that it had been an “algorithm error.”
This time, he chose silence. Whether that was the wiser move is up for debate, but the silence did little to quiet the conversation.
Twelve Years Is a Long Time
Here is what people sometimes forget in all of this. Izabelle Leite and Virat Kohli dated briefly around 2012 and 2014. When the relationship ended, she spoke about it with grace and simplicity during press interviews for her 2014 film Purani Jeans. She confirmed it, kept the details private, and moved on.
She had no interest in making it a story. Since then, she has genuinely built a different life. She is married, living in Doha, Qatar, with her husband and two children.
She has worked across both Bollywood and Telugu cinema, appearing in Mr Majnu in 2019 and World Famous Lover in 2020. She is a mother, a wife and a working professional with her own identity that has nothing to do with a relationship she was in more than a decade ago.
And yet, every single time Kohli’s name trends online, her name seems to follow. Not because she has done anything to invite it. Not because she has spoken about him. Simply because the internet decided, long ago, that she would always be defined in part by this connection, whether she liked it or not.
Her comment this week made it very clear that she does not like it.
The Larger Truth Behind the Frustration
There is something worth sitting with here. The post that pulled Izabelle back into the spotlight was framed as a celebration.
The people who shared it were not trying to be unkind. But what the post actually did was reduce several women, including a married mother of two living quietly in Qatar, to entries in a list about someone else’s dating history. A flattering list, yes. But a list that centred entirely on a man’s story, with the women present only as evidence of his good taste.
That is not really a compliment. It is the kind of attention that sounds warm on the surface but carries a quiet disrespect underneath. It says, in effect, that the most interesting thing about you is still the person you once dated. That regardless of where you are now, who you love, what you have built, you belong in this frame.
Izabelle’s two-sentence reply pushed back against exactly that. She did not do it dramatically. She did not call anyone out. She just said, plainly and with visible exhaustion, that twelve years have passed and she would appreciate being allowed to exist outside of this story.
It is a completely reasonable thing to ask for.
Kohli and Anushka Continue Their Life Together
On the other side of all this noise, Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma remain one of India’s most followed couples. They married in December 2017 in a private ceremony abroad and have spent the years since fiercely protecting their personal space.
They are parents to daughter Vamika, born in January 2021, and son Akaay, born in 2024, and have made every effort to keep their children away from media attention.
Anushka, who was last seen on screen in Zero alongside Shah Rukh Khan and made a brief appearance in the 2022 film Qala, has her sports drama Chakda Xpress still awaiting release. The couple continues to keep their family life warm, private and largely separate from the circus that surrounds their public profiles.
The irony is that Kohli’s offline life appears settled and happy, while his online life continues to generate drama without him lifting a finger.
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What Izabelle Got Right
When Izabelle Leite typed those words into a comment box this week, she was not asking for sympathy. She was not making a scene. She was telling the truth.
It has been twelve years. She has moved on. And she is tired of being pulled back into a chapter of her life that closed long before many of the people sharing those memes were even paying attention to cricket.
She got it exactly right. The internet owes her and others like her the basic dignity of allowing them to exist as complete people rather than as permanent footnotes. Moving on is something humans do all the time. The least the rest of us can do is let them.
Disclaimer:
This article is based on publicly available information, statements made by individuals to media outlets and social media posts that were visible at the time of writing. The views expressed by individuals quoted in this article are their own. This publication does not intend to cause harm, distress or defamation to any individual mentioned. Readers are encouraged to refer to sources for full context.
Kangkan Kishor Sharma, an M.A. in Media and Journalism, serves as the Chief Contributor at NestOfNews.com. He contributes regularly, bringing insight, passion, and a deep commitment to delivering stories that truly matter. His work reflects a thoughtful understanding of media, storytelling, and the issues shaping today’s world.