New details have emerged about the late Bollywood actor and politician Vinod Khanna’s long and largely private health struggles, with his second wife Kavita Khanna revealing that he was first diagnosed with lung cancer in 2001 due to his heavy smoking habit. She also disclosed that after being diagnosed with bladder cancer, he was strictly advised to give up alcohol.Vinod Khanna died in 2017 at the age of 70 after battling bladder cancer.In a recent video shared on her YouTube Channel, Kavita said Vinod had gone for a routine medical check-up when doctors detected patches in his lungs.“He’d smoke 40 to 80 cigarettes a day. We went to the leading MRI specialists of Mumbai, and they all said it was lung cancer,” she said, adding that doctors had advised surgical removal of half of his lung.The couple chose to keep the diagnosis private and sought spiritual guidance before proceeding with treatment. On the advice of their spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, they consulted senior oncologists at AIIMS, Delhi, who allowed them to defer surgery. Vinod then spent time at an ashram in Rishikesh, practising Sudarshan Kriya multiple times a day.“Later, we went to Germany. One evening, Vinod got this terrible pain somewhere around his shoulder. He was just lying in pain for two days. Then Gurudev came to see how he was, and then suggested we get an X-ray done. There was no broken rib, but the important thing was there was no cancer. Unbelievable! We came back via London, they saw all the reports, and couldn’t accept there’s been a complete cure. They just thought reports got mixed up in India.. No lung cancer came back,” recalled Kavita.In 2010, Vinod was diagnosed with bladder cancer.Kavita said doctors had given him a 25 per cent chance of survival after two years, even with full medical treatment.“Vinod then called Gurudev and said, ‘I’ve lived a full life. And if my time to go has come, I’m ready to go. But I don’t want to torture my body,’ Kavita said. He underwent panchkarma, and within two years, scans conducted in the US showed no trace of the disease.Despite periods of recovery, Khanna’s health later deteriorated. He was eventually advised to give up alcohol, which Kavita said he had consumed in moderation.“He was in good health for a long time, but eventually the disease returned. He finally died of bladder cancer,” she said.