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Actor Sania Saeed, known most recently for playing motherly roles in popular dramas Dar-e-Nijaat and Aap Ki Izzat, says she never had any children of her own because she realises just how big a responsibility raising them can be.

She was appearing on an episode of veteran actor Atiqa Odho’s podcast when the host asked her if her many pets — Saeed has 12 cats, all rescues — compensated for not having children or if she felt “a void”.

Saeed answered that she hadn’t thought of it that way, but felt that both pets and children had their own distinct place in people’s lives. Both women, however, agreed that the love someone receives from a pet is “unconditional”.

“I feel, and this is an unpopular opinion, but I find the affection of animals is more precious to me,” Saeed said. “For one thing, I never really felt anything for not having kids.”

When Odho called her “maternal”, the guest mused that she would have liked to have had kids: “I would have had fun; I like kids, it’s not that I don’t like kids.”

But liking kids alone doesn’t mean she should have them, she explained, because having kids means meeting their needs and the responsibilities a mother has towards them; she needs to completely commit to fulfilling them. “Then…they have to come before anything and everything.”

“Maybe I didn’t have children because I didn’t have the confidence that I could fulfil my responsibilities to them.”

The actor said that just taking care of her pets was enough of a responsibility that she couldn’t maintain a social life alongside it: “You all meet up, I never join you; I never go to any events.”

Odho shot back that her guest had to be threatened into socialising.

Saeed is an avid lover of animals. Earlier this year, she even spent her birthday with rescues at an animal shelter run by the Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation.

When asked what her plan was for when she got older and needed children to care for her, Saeed said, “We’ll see when we get to that point.” She said there were many people whose children couldn’t take care of them for a number of reasons, so it’s not that everyone has to be dependent on their kids at some point.

Cover photo: ACF Animal Rescue