R
ushdie and wife Padma Lakshmi are as similar to each other as chalk and cheese. He is cerebral, erudite, pugnacious, eager to offend and push the frontiers of free speech; Padma belongs to the world of catwalks and glossies and TV shows. He pens high-brow literature, she writes cookbooks; he is 60 years old and balding, she is 36 and svelte; he is a Muslim, she a Hindu; he's an atheist, she visits a temple—you could go on and on.Yet the contrasting personalities of Rushdie and Padma could not save their marriage—his fourth, her first. Last week the celebrity couple formally announced their decision to split. But the message had tongues wagging: who walked out on whom?
Most say it was Padma who called it quits, unable to draw the bookish man into the vortex of high-end partying. Rushdie's publicist, Jin Auh, said as much, claiming he "has agreed to divorce his wife, Padma Lakshmi, because of her desire to end their marriage" and requests "the media respect his privacy at this difficult time". But, curiously, Padma made the decision look like a mutual one. A statement released by her publicist noted that she "has agreed with her husband-author, Salman Rushdie, to end their marriage. After an eight-year relationship including over three years of marriage, Lakshmi regrets that their mutual efforts failed to make the marriage work."
Their marriage had been on the rocks for some time. Way back in September 2006, Outlook had said the couple was living separately, that it was Splitsville for them. Then Rushdie had lashed out to the London Times, "Oh, for f***'s sake. All I did was say to some journalist that in the last couple of months we haven't seen much of each other because she's been making a TV series in LA. It's kind of difficult.... But actually, there is no 'splitsville'. We are extremely happy."
But no one in New York and London's high society believed Rushdie, though his strong denials did quieten down those making a living out of snooping on celebrity marriages. But late last month a tabloid reported seeing Padma with a famous chef at the Rose Bar of the Gramercy Park Hotel, New York, enraptured in his company till the early hours of the morning. That her male friend was without his wife had the rumour mill working overtime. "They seemed to be quite interested in what each other had to say," the New York Post quoted a witness as saying. "They were oblivious to people around them."
Then Rushdie was in London, perhaps batting his droopy eyelids at the storm that the Queen's decision to confer knighthood on him had raised. It brought back bitter memories of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa that bayed for his blood for blaspheming Prophet Mohammed in The Satanic Verses. The couple's friends privately speculate that the uproar over the knighthood may have driven the final nail into the Rushdie-Padma marriage. Perhaps Padma felt a fresh controversy could curtail her freedom, and render a souring marriage even more stifling.
The couple's friends are determined to shield them from the prying eyes of the media to allow them the privacy they need during this rough patch. Aroon Shivdasani, executive director of New York's Indo-American Arts Council, has known Rushdie and Lakshmi for some time. "Life takes people in many different ways," she told Outlook. "Their split is entirely their business." She saw the couple together "a while ago," but was quick to point out that they attended events together as often as they could.
Media scrutiny did possibly strain their marriage. Rushdie, for one, has had to endure harsh tabloid headlines like Beauty and the Beast and Why Do Beautiful Women Love Ugly Men? But he carried on gamely, defending his stunning wife: "Anyone who's met Padma knows she's as intelligent as they come. " Apart from modelling and nurturing ambitions of becoming an actress, Padma has authored the award-winning Easy Exotic: A Model's Lowfat Recipies from Around the World. Her second cookbook, Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet, is set for publication this year.
The media also frayed her nerves. In a story in Asian Woman's May/June 2006 edition, Padma said Rushdie "attracts so much attention. More than I am comfortable with. I could do without all the gossip". She was also acutely conscious of wanting to carve her own niche, of becoming famous in her own right than just as Rushdie's muse. She told Avenue magazine, "Being married to a giant cultural figure like Salman Rushdie, I want to earn my seat at the table." Padma later told The Evening Standard, "There's nothing useful about being married to him. I think it works against me." She no longer has to contend with such problems now.