Rushdie agrees to give fourth wife the divorce she craves

The Satanic Verses author, who is worth around £8million, is said to still be in love with his 36-year-old wife but has accepted the marriage has no future.

His spokesman Jin Auh confirmed: "Salman Rushdie has agreed to divorce his wife, Padma Lakshmi, because of her desire to end their marriage."

The announcement was made two weeks after Rushdie, 60, was awarded a knighthood for services to literature, a decision which provoked fury in the Muslim world.

The couple married in 2004, five years after meeting at a magazine launch party in New York.

Rumours of a separation arose three months ago after their fashion designer friend, Diana von Furstenberg, was overheard saying: "I can't believe she is leaving him."

Last year, Miss Lakshmi complained in an interview with the New York Post that her husband did not support her television and film career.

The actress and model, who was seen playing an Indian princess in Sharpe's Challenge on ITV1 at the weekend, hosts an American cookery programme called Top Chef.

The Rushdies have often been described as an unlikely couple, comparing her beauty and his intellect, although Sir Salman has often defended his wife's intelligence.

He said in 2005: "It feels very odd to see newspaper articles saying 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Why Do Beautiful Women Love Ugly Men?' But at this stage, I'm kind of resigned to it."

Rushdie was forced to live in hiding for nine years after receiving death threats following the publication of the Satanic Verses.

The late Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran's supreme religious leader, pronounced a fatwa, or religious edict, in 1989 that called on Muslims to kill Rushdie because of perceived blasphemy in the work.

The Indian-born writer won the Booker Prize in 1981 with his second novel, Midnight's Children.

He currently earns about £500,000 a year in lectures and royalties. Rushdie's third divorce from wife Elizabeth West is believed to have cost him more than £5million.

He met Miss Lakshmi while they were still married.

The Rushdies spend most of their time in the U.S. and have their main home in Manhattan. The writer also owns a home in West London.

Yesterday, a spokesman for Miss Lakshmi said the couple had made a joint decision to end their marriage.

She said: "She (Miss Lakshmi) regrets that their mutual efforts failed to make the marriage work. She asks her privacy be respected at this difficult time."

The spokesman added that divorce proceedings are active, although it is not clear whether they will go through the British or American courts.