Salman Rushdie, the man honoured with a knighthood by one nation and threatened with a death sentence or fatwa by another, has announced his divorce from wife, Padma Lakhsmi. Rushdie sparked death threats with his bestseller Satanic Verses which provoked the ire of the Iranian government and Muslim society for its alleged insult against Islam. But Rushdie, a successful author in Britain, won the Booker Prize in 1981 through his awe-inspiring and quasi-magical second novel, Midnight’s Children. The award of a knighthood by the British government two weeks ago had triggered protests and renewed hostility against the writer.

When Rushdie first courted and wed wife, Lakhsmi, who was 20 years his junior, he ignored widespread criticism of their differences in age and intellect. Lakshmi was a model and had moved on to appearances in TV shows and movies after her marriage. While Rushdie is an international writer of great works of fiction, Lakhsmi is a writer of mediocre cookbooks. She hosts the US cooking show Top Chef. Her sexy body and seductive looks probably help boost the ratings as much as her cooking skills.

Lakshmi is Rushdie’s fourth wife and they have no children. Rushdie does not seem to be as successful in relationships and matters of the heart compared to his literary career. While Lakshmi may not be intellectually on par with the famous writer, the bespectacled and balding Rushdie was a walking suicide bomber with the death threat hanging over his head. Thus, sexy Lakshmi may be the smarter one after all.