By IANS
London : Celebrated India-born author Sir Salman Rushdie and his wife Padma Lakshmi are divorcing after three years of marriage, friends have revealed.
The relationship between 60-year-old Rushdie and his 36-year-old model wife is believed to have been under 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 Rushdie's fourth marriage comes just two weeks after the announcement of his 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 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" provoked violent reactions across the Muslim world and the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran, issued a fatwa and death threat against him. Rushdie had to spend several years underground, appearing in public only sporadically.
Lakshmi has since branched out from modelling into acting, hosting an Italian television show, starring in a soft porn movie and writing an Indian cookery book. She also hosts a reality cooking show, "Top Chef", on American television.