Padma Lakshmi Says Endometriosis Affected Her Marriage with Salman Rushdie
The #TopChef host gets real about her relationship with the writer.
Padma Lakshmi definitely didn't hold back about her personal life in her recently-released memoir, Love, Loss, and What We Ate. In the book, the Top Chef host not only opens up about her love affairs with Adam Dell and Teddy Forstmann, but also her marriage with famed writer Salman Rushdie. Padma and Salman were married for three years, divorcing in 2007. In an interview with NDTV, Padma discussed her divorce and her desire to write a book that could help empower women.
"We didn't understand the disease. I cannot speak for him. I can only decribe what it felt to be in my shoes. I don't doubt that Salman loved me. I dont," Padma said in the interview. "It was a long, complicated relationship that just didn't work out."
In the book, Padma details the end of their relationship, noting that her struggles with endometriosis, in part, played a role in their decision to go their separate ways. "You know all of the book was difficult to write about. I couldn't talk about endometriosis without talking about my own marriage in a frank way. I have a women's health foundation here in the states which I co-founded in 2009," she told NDTV. "And, you know, it was my life's mission to raise awareness about this disease that affects at least 10 percent of all child-bearing women and the reason that that's in the beginning is I also wanted to get it over with."
She continued, "If you're only interested in reading about my marriage, you don't have to go past the second chapter. And there are 17 chapters in the book, so it was difficult to write about that. It was a big part of my life."
However, she noted that while the book does go into detail about the problems she had with Salman, the relationship definitely had its ups in addition to its downs. "Some of that period was painful, but a lot of it was very happy and very love-filled. And I think if you read through the entirety of those first chapters you will see also that there was a lot of love, and a lot of admiration, and affection," Padma said. "I think I've tried to be balanced. I think both of us in the marriage tried to do the best we could. But I just wanted to have a really honest conversation."
Check out Padma's photos from her days as a model, below.
