Padma Lakshmi Breaks Silence on Attack of Ex-Husband Salman Rushdie: ‘Can Finally Exhale’
15.08.2022 - 21:57
/ usmagazine.com
Padma Lakshmi is sending her well wishes to ex-husband Salman Rushdie after he suffered life-threatening injuries over the weekend.
“Relieved @SalmanRushdie is pulling through after Friday’s nightmare,” the Top Chef host, 51, tweeted about her ex on Sunday, August 14, following the news that the author was repeatedly stabbed on Friday, August 12, while on stage at a Chautauqua, New York, lecture. “Worried and wordless, can finally exhale. Now hoping for swift healing.”
Relieved @SalmanRushdie is pulling through after Friday’s nightmare. Worried and wordless, can finally exhale. Now hoping for swift healing.
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) August 14, 2022
Rushdie has long been the subject of threats due to the controversial nature of some of his writings. His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, which was released in 1988, drew condemnation from some Muslims who believed it to be sacrilegious, including Iran’s then-leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who issued a decree calling for the writer’s death.
On Sunday, the India native’s family said he was in critical condition at the hospital after he suffered numerous stab wounds to the neck, chest, stomach and right eye.
“Though his life changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty & defiant sense of humor remains intact,” the writer’s son Zafar Rushdie said in a statement via Twitter. Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old New Jersey native, was arrested by a state trooper following the attack and was taken into custody as the suspect for the stabbing.
Lakshmi and Rushdie started dating in 1999 before tying the knot in April 2004. They were married for three years before divorcing in July 2007.
The TV host then moved on with billionaire Theodore J. Forstmann in 2009 until his death in 2011.