Salman Rushdie says he had a dream about being attacked days before stabbing

Published

9 months ago

April 15, 2024

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Sir Salman Rushdie has said he had a dream of a man trying to stab him days before he was attacked in 2022.

The author was stabbed several times during the attack, and suffered life-changing injuries including the loss of his right eye, moments before he was due to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York state.

In his first major TV interview since the attack, the 76-year-old told Anderson Cooper on CBS programme 60 Minutes he did not want to attend the talk after dreaming of a man bearing down on him with a spear in an “amphitheatre” days before the event.

“I woke up and I was quite shaken,” he said.

“I said to my wife, Eliza, ‘You know I don’t want to go’ – because of the dream. And then I thought, ‘Don’t be silly, it’s a dream’.”

In 1989 Iran’s then leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his death after the publication of his book The Satanic Verses, which many Muslims consider blasphemous.

The Indian-born British author, who said he had about “half a dozen serious assassination attempts” on his life, was due to speak about free speech before he was attacked.

“It felt like something coming out of the distant past and trying to drag me back in time, if you like, back into that distant past, in order to kill me,” he said.

“I think he was just slashing. It was the half minute of intimacy between life and death. I was watching it [blood] spread and then thinking I was probably dying. It was quite matter of fact.

“I’ve not had a revelation except there is no revelation to be had.”

‘What’s the lucky part?’

He continued: “One of the surgeons who had saved my life said to me: ‘First you were really unlucky and then you were really lucky’.

“I said, ‘What’s the lucky part?’ and he said, ‘Well, the lucky part is that the man who attacked you had no idea how to kill a man with a knife’.”

Sir Salman has now written about the attack in his new book, Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder, which is due to be published later this month.

He said he was initially reluctant to write the memoir: “It was the last thing I wanted to do.

“The only thing anyone knew about me was this death threat, but I had to write this, to focus on the elephant in the room.

“It then became a book I really wanted to write. Language is a way of breaking open the world. I don’t have any other weapons.”

A ‘squat missile’

In the book Sir Salman does not name his alleged attacker – Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old man from New Jersey, who has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

“I don’t want his name in my book and I don’t want him in my life,” he said. “We had 27 seconds together [during the attack], I don’t want to give him any more of my time.”

Reading from the book, he described how he saw a “murderous shape rushing towards” him like a “squat missile”.

On 21 April Sir Salman will discuss his book and the attack as part of a series of events for the Southbank Centre’s Spring Literature and Spoken Word Season.

Sir Salman began his writing career in the early 1970s and won the Booker Prize in 1981 for his novel Midnight’s Children, about the birth of modern India.

Entertainment

The Wanted star Max George recalls moment he wrote will from hospital bed before heart surgery

Published

32 mins ago

January 13, 2025

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The Wanted star Max George recalls moment he wrote will from hospital bed before heart surgery

The Wanted star Max George has told of the moment he wrote his will from a hospital bed, as he was convinced he “was going to die”.

In December, George revealed he had to undergo urgent heart surgery after being diagnosed with a block.

In an interview with The Sun, his first since he underwent the lifesaving surgery, the 36-year-old described the moment when he thought he would die.

He said: “If I could go from being absolutely on top of the world to being told ‘the bottom part of your heart isn’t working’, I kept thinking in my head, ‘Well, what if the top half stops working overnight?'”

“That first night I wrote a will, I thought I was going to die,” the 36-year-old musician added.

On the night of 13 December, George said his heart rate and blood pressure dropped, “I felt like I was dying,” he said.

He had a pacemaker fitted by doctors during the surgery, but the former Strictly Come Dancing star said he made a will on his phone fearing the worst.

Before the surgery, George said his thoughts turned to his partner, British actress Maisie Smith, and his family who he feared he’d leave behind.

He shared updates on social media throughout the process.

While the procedure was complicated by collapsed veins caused by the condition, the surgery was successful and he returned home before Christmas.

He described his pacemaker as “the best Christmas present”.

Tom Parker, who also rose to fame in the 2010s with the boy band along with George, died at the age of 33 after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.

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Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson announces pregnancy – and it’s twins

Published

32 mins ago

January 13, 2025

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Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson announces pregnancy - and it's twins

Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson has announced she is pregnant with twins.

The singer, 33, said she was “eating for three now” on her Instagram alongside a polaroid picture of her with Zion Foster, with whom she was reported to have split up last year.

Nelson shared the touching post on Sunday, letting the world know she is set to become a mum for the first time – including two baby emojis next to her message.

The cosy picture shows the pair smiling in a kitchen.

Nelson rose to fame with the girl band Little Mix, which formed on The X Factor in 2011 and earned a string of UK number-one singles.

However, she left in December 2020 after nine years, saying the pressures of being in the group had taken a toll on her mental health.

Nelson has since performed as a solo artist but still had praise for her former bandmates, telling The Graham Norton Show in 2021: “To me they are still the sickest girl band in the world.”

Little Mix continued as a trio after Nelson’s departure in December 2020 before going on hiatus in 2022.

Entertainment

Duchess of Sussex delays release of Netflix series due to LA fires

Published

32 mins ago

January 13, 2025

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Duchess of Sussex delays release of Netflix series due to LA fires

The Duchess of Sussex has delayed the release of her new Netflix series due to the devastation caused by the wildfires in LA, the streaming platform has announced.

Meghan’s eight-part series, With Love, will premiere on 4 March instead of 15 January.

“I’m thankful to my partners at Netflix for supporting me in delaying the launch, as we focus on the needs of those impacted by the wildfires in my home state of California,” Meghan said in a statement to Tudum, the official companion site to Netflix.

Harry and Meghan comforted volunteers and handed out food to evacuees during a visit to Pasadena on Friday, where they met with the city’s mayor Victor Gordo and emergency workers tackling the Eaton Fire.

Footage showed the duchess, wearing a blue “LA” baseball cap, and the prince hugging and consoling people who had fled to the Pasadena Convention Center.

Latest on LA fires

They were also seen speaking Doug Goodwin, whose home was destroyed in the wildfires, and also to Jose Andres, founder of World Central Kitchen (WCK) which has been helping feed the public and emergency crews.

A description of the Netflix series on Tudum’s website said: “Produced by Meghan, ‘With Love, Meghan’ blends practical how-to’s and candid conversation with friends, new and old.

“Meghan shares personal tips and tricks, embracing playfulness over perfection, and highlights how easy it can be to create beauty, even in the unexpected.

“She and her guests roll up their sleeves in the kitchen, the garden, and beyond, and invite you to do the same.”

The royals live in Montecito, near Santa Barbara, around 90 miles from Los Angeles.

They are understood to have donated supplies, including clothing and children’s items, to people affected by the disaster.

They released a statement on Thursday urging people to help those affected by the wildfires and to open their homes to those evacuated.