Why Padma Lakshmi Says ‘It’s Sweeter’ Being in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit in Her 50s Than in Her 20s

Padma Lakshmi.Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Culinary personality and best-selling author Padma Lakshmi spent her 20s modeling. The Top Chef host and Taste the Nation executive producer returns to her roots with her appearance in the 2023 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue this month at the age of 52. She says she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I really thought that the Sports Illustrated ship had sailed for me, or the possibility of it, and I’d never done it before,” she says. “But 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, but I wouldn’t go back to my 20s if you paid me all the money in the world. I love where I am in my life, and no, my body’s not perfect by any means, but I don’t care. I feel like I have a very lucky, fruitful, productive life, and I hope that’s what [people] see when they see these pictures. I hope they see a full woman in all my facets and nuances, and also some contradictions.”

Lakshmi adds that society often doesn’t allow women to be their “full selves” and instead boxes them into categories that are incorrectly deemed as mutually exclusive.

“You either have to be the pinup or the intellectual. You either have to be the feminist or the coquette,” she explains. “We see women in these archetypes—and that’s not how most human beings are.”

Padma Lakshmi was photographed by Yu Tsai in Dominica. Swimsuit by Toxic Sadie Swimwear.

Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Lakshmi describes herself as dynamic: funny, silly, serious, kind, intelligent and creative are just a few words she uses. But also, she’s “vain as f---” and can’t deny that she wants to look good, especially when modeling for a magazine that reaches millions of viewers.

She admits that while she’s working on both her shows, she does gain a little weight—and there’s nothing wrong with that. Before her SI Swimsuit photo shoot, she was filming both series.

“I was a little bit freaked out because I knew that I couldn’t get as tight and lean as I could if I had some more time,” she says. “But then I just looked in the mirror and I reminded myself, I’m not here because I’m the world’s greatest model. I’m here because I’m me. I’m not getting this in my 20s. I’m getting this now, at this point, and it’s so much sweeter because I’m doing it now.”

She’s especially proud because her SI Swimsuit photos truly portray a woman who is beautiful due to her years of living, not despite them.

“Of course it’s a visual image, but the reason that I hopefully move better in my body, the reason that I look beautiful now at this age especially, is not because of my skin—it’s because of what’s inside my skin,” Lakshmi says. “It’s because of my experiences, my learning and just being out in the world. People are more interesting as they become who they’re going to be as they age. I feel more beautiful now than I did when I was a model in my 20s. I probably looked more beautiful then, but I feel much more beautiful now.”

Meet Padma Lakshmi—read the 2023 SI Swimsuit model’s full feature profile here.