Salman Rushdie to divorce fourth wife

Author Salman Rushdie is to divorce his wife Padma Lakshmi after three years of marriage.

The couple met in New York in 1999 at a magazine launch. At 60, Rushdie is 22 years older than his estranged wife, and as their relationship became public knowledge much was made of their age difference in various corners of the press.

Television presenter Lakshmi asked Rushdie for the divorce, although the cause of their marital problems is not known. The announcement that the writer's fourth marriage is to end comes two weeks after he accepted a knighthood.

His spokeswoman Jin Auh said in a statement on his behalf: "Salman Rushdie has agreed to divorce his wife, Padma Lakshmi, because of her desire to end their marriage. He asks that the media respect his privacy at this difficult time."

Rushdie became a well known literary figure after the release of his Booker prize winning novel Midnight's Children in 1981. He was the subject of international furore in 1988 after the release of his book The Satanic Verses which was deemed blasphemous by Iran's then religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who issued a fatwa against the author.