On Friday, August 12, 2018, while author Salman Rushdie was onstage for an engagement at New York’s Chautauqua Institution, he was the victim of a horrifying attack in which he was stabbed in the neck.
The author was hastily transported to a nearby hospital via helicopter while the suspect, subsequently determined to be 24 years old and named Hadi Matar, was taken into custody. Shortly after the attack, Major Eugene Staniszewski of the New York State Police reported that Rushdie had been stabbed in the neck and abdomen:
The suspect ran onto the stage, attacked Rushdie, and stabbed him at least once in the belly and at least once in the neck.
After the attack, photographs taken at the venue showed the author lying on the ground with first responders huddled over his body. Videos also showed Salman Rushdie being transported on a stretcher towards an awaiting chopper.
The novelist was said to be “undergoing surgery” some hours after the incident, according to a report that came out later. More recently, Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, revealed to The New York Times that the author had critical injuries and was subsequently placed on a ventilator:
“Unfortunately, there is some bad news. There is a good chance that Salman will lose one of his eyes, the nerves in his arm were destroyed, and his liver was stabbed and damaged.
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According to reports, Salman Rushdie was present at the Chautauqua Institution to deliver a speech on the topic of “More than Shelter” and to participate in a discussion on the topic of “the United States as an asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression.”
An investigation into Salman Rushdie’s family life, including his marriages and children
Zafar and Milan are Salman Rushdie’s sons, and they make their father very proud.
In his lifetime, Salman Rushdie has been married four times, and he is the doting father of two wonderful children, Zafar and Milan. In 1976, he had his first wedding, which was to Clarissa Luard, who was the literature officer for the Arts Council of England. In 1969, the latter person attended a concert where the then-unpublished author was present.
Before being married in 1976, the couple began living together while she was working as a publicity manager at the Paul Elek publishing business. After getting married, the couple had two children. 1979 marked the birth of the couple’s son Zafar, and the following year, in 1987, the pair divorced.
According to reports, Zafar is the proprietor of his own public relations agency and is married to Natalie Rushdie, a jazz musician residing in London.
Elizabeth West, a British editor and author, is Rushdie’s third wife, and they have another child together. Their name is Milan, and he is their son. Milan is a city about which very little is known. He prefers to remain in the background and has a limited presence on social media.
When West helped Rushdie with the editing of his book in 1997, they worked together.
Mirrorwork: Fifty Years of Indian Writing, 1947–1997 is the title of this anthology. They also got married in that same year, and in 1999 they had their first child together. In 2004, the couple finally parted ways and divorced each other. Rushdie had been married to the American novelist Marianne Wiggins before to his marriage to West.
After getting married in 1988, the couple moved to London, where they remained while Rushdie fought the fatwa issued against him by the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini for his book The Satanic Verses. Along with Rushdie, Wiggins went into hiding, but in 1993 the two of them broke up and went their own ways.
After Rushdie’s marriage to Elizabeth West ended in divorce in 2004, he wed Padma Lakshmi, an Indian model, actor, author of culinary books, and host of the television show Top Chef. The couple did not have any children before deciding to divorce in 2007. They have no children together.
Even though each of Rushdie’s four marriages eventually ended in divorce, the author maintained a strong bond with each of his sons. Additionally, he devoted his autobiography, Joseph Anton, to his nephews Zafar and Milan Rushdie as well as their mothers, Clarissa and Elizabeth.