‘Rushdie, wife may divorce’

The relationship between the couple has been under tremendous strain, say friends

LONDON: Celebrated India-born author Sir Salman Rushdie, 60, and his wife Padma Lakshmi, 36, are divorcing after three years of marriage, friends have revealed. The relationship between the couple is believed to have been under tremendous strain for some months, but close friends claim that Lakshmi now regards the marriage as over, the Daily Mail reported.

Rumours that the marriage was in trouble began three months ago after one of their common friends, fashion designer Diana von Furstenberg, was overheard saying: “I can’t believe she’s leaving him.” The collapse of the marriage comes just two weeks after the announcement of Rushdie’s knighthood. A close friend of Rushdie said he was “still very much in love” with Lakshmi, but that his feelings were no longer reciprocated, the paper reported.

The couple’s relationship began eight years ago after they met at a celebrity party in New York. Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses  had incited the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran, to issue a fatwa, forcing the writer to spend several years underground. Lakshmi has since shifted from modelling to acting, hosting an Italian television show, starring in a film and writing an Indian cookery book. She also hosts a reality cooking show, ‘Top Chef’, on American television.