2023 SI Swimsuit Model Padma Lakshmi Reflects on Feeling More Beautiful Than Ever at 52

The culinary personality, mom and best-selling author makes her debut with the magazine this month.

Padma Lakshmi was photographed by Yu Tsai in Dominica.

Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Padma Lakshmi spent her 20s modeling for major brands including Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace, Ralph Lauren and Alberta Ferretti. The Top Chef and Taste the Nation host makes her debut in the 2023 SI Swimsuit Issue later this month, and at 52, says it’s so much “sweeter” at this age. 

“There are many moments in my life where I haven’t loved my body,” she admits. “I learned a very important lesson as a young woman, that beauty is really arbitrary, and so is fashion. What’s important is that you feel beautiful no matter what.”

Over her multiple decades in the television and modeling industries, she has found strength in overcoming obstacles. She feels more beautiful now, in her 50s, as a result of her age and everything that comes with it.

“I think that I feel more beautiful now because I hold that strength and I hold the experience in my flesh, in my person and in my spirit,” she explains. “I think that has really made me who I am. I’m 52 years old, and I have never felt better about myself. My thighs may have been leaner and my boobs were probably slightly higher in earlier parts of my life, before I had my kid.”

Lakshmi, who was born in Chennai, India, and grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles and New York City (where she lives now), has a 13-year-old daughter, Krishna.

“I wouldn’t go back to my 20s if you paid me all the money in the world,” she adds. “I love where I am in my life. No, my body’s not perfect by any means. But I don’t care. I feel beautiful. I feel like I have a very lucky, fruitful, productive life.”

She enjoys expressing herself artistically and calls modeling “empowering.”

“If I can use my body as an instrument to do that, great. I’m going to do that before it’s too late,” she continues. “But I’ll tell you what, at 52, it ain’t too late.”

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