Padma Lakshmi 'missing' Sir Salman

LONDON: Less than a year after her three-year marriage to writer Salman Rushdie ended, former model and 'Top Chef' host of Indian origin Padma Lakshmi has started feeling a little nostalgic for him.
 
"I really miss him. I miss his counsel. I miss the sound of his voice," the 'Daily Mail' said here on Sunday, quoting Lakshmi as saying about her ongoing divorce from the writer who was recently awarded a knighthood by Britain.
 
Rushdie, who met Padma in 1999, asked her to move out of the family home after she requested the split.
 
"It was really hard to pack up and leave. I was just in pieces, I couldn't function. The only things I wanted were the gifts he gave me during the marriage and some artwork -- and this was fine."
 
"Now I am staying in a hotel with all my stuff in storage. Some days I think I am going to be OK and then I have a day where I feel exiled from my life because I had to move out," the former model was quoted as saying.
 
In fact, Rushdie had announced the split in July in a statement.
 
"It was filled with too much information -- he didn't need to do that. I had thought we would eventually say we wish each other well, we love each other, and we are separating amicably," she said.
 
In fact, rumours circulated that it was Lakshmi's involvement with a mystery billionaire, that led to the break-up and that she did not get on with Rushdie's children from previous relationships.
 
However, Lakshmi has denied this. "What I can say?" she added, "is that Salman is the greatest love of my life. We really tried to work it out. There was no 'that's it' moment. It was just getting very hard. There was no third party. I wasn't mean to his kids."