But it was no problem interviewing Bhutto many years later, and putting tough questions to her, when Thapar was almost 40 — by then, he had “matured”. He was “no more a young boy”.

Bhutto and Thapar would invite each other for debates, while they were at Oxford University and Cambridge University respectively, and also enjoyed long drives and late-night ice cream runs in London.

Thapar just as candidly spoke about his late wife Nisha, and how, at the time of her untimely death, he had been thankful for having no children, who’d have grown up without a mother. But later, when he was in his forties, Thapar regretted not having children, seeing his other friends playing with their young ones.