Author, activist, actress, philanthropist, and television host Padma Lakshmi can add another job to her résumé — Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model!
The 52-year-old made her debut in this year’s body-baring summer edition and she admitted on a recent episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that she started “freaking out” when she got the “holy grail” of modeling jobs.
The late-night talk show host, 55, presented a photo of Lakshmi from her photoshoot where she sported a yellow bikini.
Kimmel then asked her if it was “meaningful” to be in the sports magazine’s annual swimsuit printing.
“Yeah, it’s definitely meaningful,” the “Easy Exotic” writer said. “I would have killed for it when I was in my 20s and a model because it is the holy grail.”
She continued: “And they never even called me for anything like this and I really thought that ship had passed, to be honest.”
“So, when I got the call now, a few months ago, I was like really?” Lakshmi giddily recalled receiving the good news.
“I did not believe the news on the phone and then I started freaking out and I’m like, ‘I’ve got to go to the gym,’” she said.
She also admitted that she had to get her sweat on and exercise more intensely due to overeating while filming her Bravo show “Top Chef.”
The cookbook author got candid about making her debut in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit issue. Jimmy Kimmel Live /ABC
The mother of one had just finished shooting the reality show when she got the call that she would be modeling on the publication’s cover.
“I eat so much food [on ‘Top Chef’],” she confessed. “First half of the season, we have a lot of contestants, [so we eat] eight or nine thousand calories a day easily.”
Fashion photographer Yu Tsai captured the spicy shots for the issue, where Lakshmi modeled an array of sultry bathing suits.
Lakshmi immediately hit the gym when she got the news she would be modeling for the magazine. Jimmy Kimmel Live /ABC
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue editor-in-chief MJ Day explained why the company chose the Indian-American beauty for the 2023 cover.
“The importance of Padma’s presence here is multifold. She is here because she feels better than ever both inside and out,” Day said in a statement on May 1. “At 52, she has curated a life that represents who she authentically is: a powerful, beautiful, brilliant, accomplished woman in her prime.”
The “Top Chef” host posed in a selection of sultry swimsuits for the summer edition of the publication. GC Images
“She can make the world look and listen and is here to remind us all that women can be all of these things and feel sexy AF,” Day added.
Lakshmi celebrated her body for her 52nd birthday last September and shared a photo of herself sporting a bikini.
She posted a snapshot from her Hawaiian vacation last year, with the caption, “This is 52.”
She donned a pink-and-white flower crown, and a black string two-piece suit and posed in the ocean water for the pic.
Padma Lakshmi, 52, ‘freaking out’ over ‘Sports Illustrated’ cover
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