I was groped by Mrs Thatcher! Author Salman Rushdie claims the late Prime Minister ‘pawed’ at him during one meeting then spanked Christopher Hitchens with a rolled-up magazine

• Salman Rushdie revealed that he was ‘groped’ by Margaret Thatcher
• He was speaking on a discussion about claims that Joe Biden touched women 
• The 71-year-old has been married four times, including author Padma Lakshmi

She will always be remembered as the fiercely uncompromising Iron Lady who struck terror into her political opponents.

But in private Margaret Thatcher had a surprisingly ‘touchy-feely’ side, according to author Salman Rushdie, who has revealed he was even ‘groped’ by the late Prime Minister.

During an America TV discussion about claims that former US Vice-President Joe Biden touched a number of women inappropriately, Mr Rushdie, 71, said: ‘I have a little experience of being sexually violated by a powerful politician. In my case it was Margaret Thatcher.

Salman Rushdie with second wife Marianne Wiggin. The pair divorced in March 1993. The writer and Thatcher were often at loggerheads politically. However, he was always grateful to her for the firm stance she took in reaction to the threat on his life from Iran following the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses in 1988, when she provided him with police protection

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher drinks tea in the drawing room of her official residence at 10 Downing Street in 1987. Thatcher died aged 87 in 2013. Mr Rushdie claimed that the late Prime Minister had a softer side and even groped him once

 ‘The thing that people don’t know about Margaret Thatcher is that she was very touchy-feely. You’d sit with her, and she’d put her hands all over you. I had this meeting with her, and she was, like, pawing at me, and I thought, “I’m being groped by the Prime Minister!” ’

The writer and Thatcher were often at loggerheads politically. However, he was always grateful to her for the firm stance she took in reaction to the threat on his life from Iran following the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses in 1988, when she provided him with police protection.

Speaking on the HBO show Real Time With Bill Maher, Rushdie also described a risqué encounter between Thatcher and Christopher Hitchens, the famously outspoken commentator who died in 2011. 

Salman Rushdie and Pia Glennat (left) at the Vanity Fair party to celebrate the Tribeca Film Festival at the State Supreme Courthouse. Mr Rushdie with his ex-wife and fellow author Padma Lakshmi (right). The couple filed for divorce in 2007. The author of ‘Fury’ claimed in an interview with HBO that the former Prime Minister ‘groped’ him

Mr Rushdie said: ‘Margaret Thatcher, by the way, spanked Christopher Hitchens. She heard Christopher had written something she didn’t like, and she met him at a party conference, and she said to him, “You’ve been a naughty boy, haven’t you?”

‘And he said, ‘Well, yes, Prime Minister, I suppose I have.”

‘And she said, “You’d better bend over.” She made him bend over, and she spanked him with a rolled-up magazine.’

Rushdie has previously spoken about the softer side of Thatcher. Following her death aged 87 in 2013, he said: ‘She would tap you on the arm and say, “Everything OK?” I hadn’t expected that touch of tenderness.’

We never realised you were so shy, Salman! 

BY STEPHAN ADAMS for the Mail On Sunday 

Owlish, bespectacled Salman Rushdie has enjoyed a surprisingly eventful love life.

The 71-year-old has been married four times and has been an unlikely magnet for a string of beautiful and sophisticated women.

His married first wife Clarissa Luard in 1976 and they had a son, Zafar, three years later. But the couple divorced in 1987 after Rushdie left her for bohemian Australian blonde Robyn Davidson, also an accomplished writer. The pair were introduced by the late literary great Bruce Chatwin. They did not marry and they went their separate ways after two years.

In 1988, Rushdie married American novelist Marianne Wiggins but their tempestuous union ended in acrimony and accusations of deceit five years later.

Next came young brunette Elizabeth West, whom he married in 1997. The couple had met during his period in hiding following the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses.

This marriage collapsed when he met towering Indian-born model Padma Lakshmi. He later described how he knew he would be unable to resist the woman he had previously only seen gracing the pages of magazines.

‘If I ever meet this girl my goose is cooked,’ he recalled in a memoir.

Rushdie and Lakshmi married in 2004 but the union ended three years later when she left him. Rushdie later admitted the relationship had probably been ‘a mirage’, but reasoned: ‘She was just too goddamn gorgeous to leave.’

His love life hit the headlines again in 2009 after he ditched actress Pia Glenn by email. In response she dubbed him ‘cowardly, dysfunctional and immature’.

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