Padma Lakshmi is looking back at the media obsession surrounding her first baby.
The author and television host spoke on People‘s podcast “Me Becoming Mom” about the public speculation around the identity of her baby’s father.
In 2010, Lakshmi gave birth to daughter Krishna Thea with Adam Dell, founder of Dell computers, but did not reveal the identity of the baby’s father at the time.
“I was sort of between relationships without going into the specifics. It definitely complicated the situation, and as we know, our society is a patriarchal society, so I knew that it was not the ideal way, obviously, to be in the situation I was in,” she recalled.
While the model was happy to be a new mother, the obsession with the identity of the other parent was ever-present.
“I was just happy. That stuff was certainly there. It was in the background, it was always like a white noise presence,” Lakshmi said. “It certainly was icky when the press started snooping around in various countries — not just America, but in India, England, Australia. At that time, it was splashed all over the newspapers and it was mortifying.”
In the middle of everything, she tried to focus on the most important thing.
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“But on the other hand, it was inconsequential because the main event was that I was going to be a mom,” she added.
