Salman Rushdie, one of the famend writers on the planet, and the previous husband of Padma Lakshmi, was attacked and stabbed within the neck on Aug. 12. Here is what to learn about Salman Rushdie.
UPDATE 8/12/22: Sir Salman Rushdie was attacked and stabbed within the neck in New York State on Friday, August 12. He was reportedly airlifted to a neighborhood hospital, police stated, and his situation is unknown, based on CNN. Salman’s attacker was reportedly taken into custody by a state trooper. The incident occurred simply earlier than Salman walked on stage to provide a lecture on the Chautauqua Establishment in NY.
Sir Salman Rushdie was, for a quick time, “Mr. Padma Lakshmi.” The writer — who received the Booker Worth in 1981 together with his second novel, Midnight’s Kids – married the actress and culinary icon within the early 2000s. Sadly, inside and exterior points resulted of their marriage going bitter. Earlier than the last decade was up, that they had gone their separate methods, trying to find the following chapter of their respective tales.
“For me, it was great as a result of I lastly had anyone who understood me as a result of he too was Indian and he was additionally residing within the West, and he was very nimble in navigating these two worlds,” she advised PEOPLEwhen discussing her 2016 memoir, Love, Loss and What We Ate. Salman was born in Bombay, India, in 1947. Whereas working as a copywriter for an promoting company, he started a literary profession that may be marked by worldwide acclaim and dying threats. He made his debut with 1975’s Grimus, adopted by Midnight’s Kids and Disgrace (1983). It was his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, that earned him infamy, with many within the Muslim world denouncing it for what they believed to be blasphemous references to the lifetime of the prophet Muhammad. With a fatwa on his lead, Rushdie continued to dwell his life – and discover love – as he did with Padma.
How Padma & Salman Met
Rushdie and Laskhmi’s paths first crossed in 1999. The 2 met at a celebration in New York Metropolis. On the time, he was nonetheless married to his third spouse, Elizabeth West. Padma, on the time, was an aspiring mannequin and actress. She appeared reverse Mariah Carey within the now-infamous Glitter, and in 2006, she would land the function that may come to outline her profession: internet hosting Prime Chef, a job she’s had for 15 years.
The couple met in Central Park for his or her first date and wound up in mattress collectively. “He seduced me together with his phrases,” she advised PEOPLE. “I used to be fairly hooked.”
“I really like him to items,” a then-28-year-old Padma stated of Salman to Tatler journal in 2000, per the New York Publish. “I feel he’s proven an incredible quantity of grace within the face of unprecedented strife. That’s what turns me on: his dignity…He’s younger at coronary heart.” She additionally took the blame for, on the time, the criticism Salman obtained for spending an excessive amount of time on the Hollywood get together circuit. “The one cause Salman goes out to golf equipment is as a result of I drag him out,” she stated. “He simply loves his books. He misses his library in England sorely.”
Padma & Salman’s Married Life
“For us Indians, he’s like [Ernest] Hemingway,” Padma throughout that PEOPLE interview. “Think about a younger girl in her twenties, who loves books and who had printed her little cookbook [1999’s Easy Exotic: A Model’s Low Fat Recipes From Around the World] and in comes this man,” she stated. “I imply, he was one of the best factor that ever occurred to me by a mile. The truth that anyone of that stature and caliber was even remotely sufficient in me to need to take me to lunch was type of unbelievable.”
Padma and Salman’s romance lasted from 1999 to 2007. After residing collectively for 3 years, the couple married in April 2004. There was, sadly, no joyful ending for this love story.
The early years of their marriage had been “blissful,” based on Padma. Nonetheless, she wrote in her memoir that well being and professional points strained their relationship. Padma suffers from endometriosis, a painful uterine dysfunction (she would later co-found the Endometriosis Basis of America to boost consciousness.) She was in such continual ache that at factors, she was bedridden and unable to have intercourse. “I feel that Salman took it personally, and I feel that he felt rejected,” she advised Individuals, “and I can perceive that.” In her memoir, she wrote that the shortage of intimacy resulted in him calling her a “dangerous funding.”
Rushdie wrote about their marriage in his 2012 memoir, Joseph Anton, which shares the title of the safety code title he used. Written within the third particular person, per The New York Occasions, Salman wrote, “Her emotions for him — he would study — had been actual, however intermittent. She was bold in a method that always obliterated feeling. They'd have a type of life collectively — eight years from first assembly to closing divorce, not a negligible size of time — and in the long run, inevitably, she broke his coronary heart as he had damaged Elizabeth’s.”
Salman additionally touched upon the opposite contributing issue to their marriage’s demise: as her profession took off, so did his resentment. “I simply wished to additionally do one thing else alone,” she advised PEOPLE. “I simply wished my very own id.” Salman, in his memoir, advised that she was aggressive “and although he was blocking her gentle…she didn’t like enjoying second fiddle.” Regardless of this falling out, Padma advised PEOPLE she nonetheless loves him and “think about(s) him nonetheless a part of my household.”
After Padma and Salman’s divorce, she started courting Theodore “Teddy” Forstmann, billionaire CEO of the worldwide sports activities and media empire IMG. Throughout a break of their relationship, she related with enterprise capitalist Adam Dell, the brother of Michael Dell, the founding father of Dell computer systems. Throughout this romance, they conceived a daughter, Krishna. At first, Padma didn’t disclose the daddy of her little one, and Vainness Honest reported that Forstmann wished to be the daddy (underneath the situation that she didn’t divulge to Adam or the general public that he was the kid’s true father.) However, Padma took a paternity check confirming Adam was the daddy (the outcomes had been later revealed in Adam’s early-2012 custody battle.) Forstmann died in November 2011 after a battle with mind most cancers.
Adam and Padma rekindled their relationship in 2017. The three had been quarantining collectively through the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. That 12 months, Padma celebrated her fiftieth birthday with a touching tribute, one which was stuffed with gratitude. “I can't ask for something extra,” she wrote. “I'm actually blessed: a loving and attentive accomplice, a toddler that continues to be a miracle each day and work that I'm happy with and absolutely engaged by with folks I really like.” She and Adam reportedly ended their on-again/off-again relationship at first of 2021. In June, she was reportedly courting poet Terrence Hayes.
Salman dated a couple of girls after his marriage with Padma ended. In 2019, he was reportedly linked with Rachel Eliza Griffiths, per Web page Six. She was, on the time, a 40-year-old poet and artist.
Children and Household
Salman fathered a son, Zafar (born 1979), together with his first spouse, Clarissa Luard, (married 1976-1987.) He and Elizabeth West (married 1997-2004) welcomed son Milan in 1997. Padma has no different kids apart from her daughter, Krishna.
Information About Salman Rushdie
The Supreme Chief of Iran Known as For His Dying
After The Satanic Verses “mocked or not less than contained mocking references to the Prophet Muhammad and different facets of Islam, along with and a personality clearly primarily based on the Supreme Chief of Iran,” per Historical past.com, the precise then-Supreme Chief of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa on Rushdie’s head. Khomeini known as on “all courageous Muslims” to kill Rushdie. The guide sparked protests in Pakistan and India, the place it was banned. Rushdie apologized to the Ayatollah and Muslims worldwide in 1989 and 1990, however the protests and violence continued (he would later categorical remorse for apologizing). There have been quite a few killings, tried killings, and bombings because of the guide.
In 1998, Iran’s former president Mohammad Khatami stated the fatwa was “completed,” per The Guardian, however as a result of fatwa’s nature, it might by no means be over. It’s a decree issued by a non secular scholar and might solely be repealed by that similar scholar. Khomeini died in 1989 with out repealing the fatwa.
He Nonetheless Continues To Write
Following The Satanic Verses, Rushdie continued to publish novels and collections of essays. The Moor’s Final Sigh (1995), The Floor Beneath Her Ft (1999), Fury (2001), Shalimar the Clown (2005), The Enchantress of Florence (2008), Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (2015), The Golden Home (2017), and Quichotte (2019) are a part of his bibliography.
He’s A Knight
Rushdie was knighted for his providers to literature on June 16, 2007, as a part of Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honors. Muslims in many countries protested the transfer.
He’s a Spurs Fan.
Since 2000, Salman has lived in New York Metropolis. He helps the Tottenham Hotspur soccer membership.
He was attacked in New York Metropolis.
Salman was the sufferer of a terrifying stabbing assault in New York Metropolis on August 12, 2022. Salman was about to talk on stage at a lecture on the Chautauqua Establishment when he was stabbed within the neck by a suspect, who was taken into custody by authorities. A witness claimed that the suspect rushed onto the stage and began “punching” Salman after which allegedly stabbed him. Salman was reportedly airlifted to a neighborhood hospital however his situation is unknown.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke to reporters after the incident, based on CNN. She stated Salman is “alive” and “getting the care he wants” within the hospital.