Padma Lakshmi

Some Lesser Known Facts About Padma Lakshmi

• Does Padma Lakshmi smoke?: Not Known

• Does Padma Lakshmi drink?: Yes

  

• Her father had left her and her mother, when she was just 1 year old, and got separated, when she was in her second year. After the divorce, her mother shifted to America and settled there.

• Padma Lakshmi lived with her maternal grandparents before joining her mother in the US, after almost 2 years. Later, both her mother and father remarried separately.

• At the age of 7, she was molested by one of her stepfather’s relative. She wrote about this incident in the New York Times,
  

  “When I was 7 years old, my stepfather’s relative touched me between my legs and put my hand on his erect penis. Shortly after I told my mother and stepfather, they sent me to India for a year to live with my grandparents. The lesson was: If you speak up, you will be cast out.”

• She grew up shuttling between her mother in New York and her maternal grandparents in Chennai, India.

  

• At the age of 14, in 1984, she was suffered from Stevens-Johnson syndrome (a rare skin and mucosa disorder) and was hospitalized for almost 3 weeks.

• After 2 days of her discharge from the hospital, she got injured in a car accident in California, when her mother took her to a temple for thanking God for making her better. This road accident left her with a shattered right upper arm and a fractured right hip. Her arm injury required an operation, which left a seven-inch scar on her arm.

  

• During her teen years in Los Angeles, she was very conscious of her arm scar. She was bullied by her schoolmates for the same, which led her to dislike herself. She was also called ‘Giraffe’ for her long neck.

• When she was in school, most of the people mispronounce her name by Pamda, Panda, and others. So, she changed her name to ‘Angelique’ when she entered High School as she also wanted an exotic name.

• While studying in Madrid, she was spotted by a modelling agent at a cafe. He offered her a modelling job, she accepted the offer and entered modelling at the age of 21.

  

• Her arm scar, for which she became self-conscious at first, distinguished her in the glamour world. Her modelling work brought many acting jobs to her and soon, she started appearing in TV shows too. In an interview, she admitted that
  

  “The scar became my brand statement. I was the first Indian model to have a career in Paris, Milan and New York”

• In the initial phase of her career, she worked for top designers including Gianni Versace, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Alberta Ferretti, and Emanuel Ungaro. She also appeared in the ad campaigns of Versus and Roberto Cavalli.

• In 1999, when she was approached for an Italian series, ‘Caraibi – Pirates: Blood Brothers.’ She had to gain almost 30 pounds (14 kg) to match the requirement of her role.

  

• In the same year, after losing that extra weight, she published her book, Easy Exotic on 22 May. The success of her book gave her many opportunities like to start her own show, “Padma’s Passport: My Mother’s Kitchen” on Food Network and to host a British TV show, “Planet Food.”

• In the same year, she met author and her former husband, Salman Rushdie (almost 23 years elder than her) at an event in New York. In 2001, her former husband Salman Rushdie dedicated one of his novels named “Fury” to her.

• In 2005, she was diagnosed with endometriosis, from which she has suffered since her early age.

• In 2006, she became the host and judge of an American cooking reality show, Top Chef. The show made a great change in her life and she became popular as Top Chef’s Host.

  

• After her divorce with Salman Rushdie in 2007, she published another cookbook titled “Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet: A World of Recipes for Every Day” on 29 August 2007. The same year, she met her biological father after more than 3 decades.

  

• In 2009, when she got the news of her pregnancy, she was shocked as she didn’t know who was the father of her child. She wrote about it in her 2016 memoir, ‘Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir.’ She explained that
  

  “I was dating both Adam Dell (brother of Dell Computer founder Michael) and the late IMG CEO and billionaire Teddy Forstmann at the time. I was shocked and elated.”

  

• In the same year, i.e. 2009, she launched her first line of jewellery named “Padma.” Later. she launched her tableware collections- one is “Easy Exotic” and second is “The Padma Collection.” She also owns a line of specialty teas, spices, and organic frozen rices.

  

• She had a column in the newspaper, ‘The New York Times’ and has written several articles for the same. She has also written a column for the women’s fashion magazine, ‘Harper’s Bazaar.’

  

• In 2018, in an op-ed for The New York Times, she revealed that she was raped, at the age of 16. She wrote that when she was 16, she was in a relationship with a 23-year-old guy. After a few months of their affair, he assaulted her sexually, while sleeping. She stated,
  

  “It took me decades to talk about this with intimate partners and a therapist. Now, 32 years after my rape, I am stating publicly what happened. I am speaking now because I want us all to fight so that our daughters never know this fear and shame and our sons know that girls’ bodies do not exist for their pleasure and that abuse has grave consequences.”

• She has featured on the covers of several well-known magazines such as ‘L’Officiel India,’ ‘Vogue India,’ ‘Asian Woman,’ ‘Avenue,’ ‘Cosmopolitan,’ ‘Newsweek,’ ‘Marie Claire India,’ and ‘Harper’s Bazaar.’

• She is the co-founder of a nonprofit organization, ‘Endometriosis Foundation of America’ along with Dr. Tamer Seckin.

• She is also associated with several other nonprofit organizations such as ‘Keep a Child Alive,’ ‘amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research,’ ‘Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation,’ and others.

• Apart from English, she also speaks Tamil, French, Italian, and Hindi.

• She is a fine boxer too.