al-aqqad experienced two major romantic relationships in his life. the first was whom he called "sarah" in his novel of the same name. the second was with the famous egyptian actress madiha yousri. this relationship was ended by al-aqqad himself, because of yousri's career as an actress. al-aqqad wrote a poetry work about this relationship called "cyclones of a sunset" ("a-asiru maghrib" in arabic).