Padma Lakshmi ‘freaking out’ over Sports activities Illustrated swimsuit cowl at 52
Writer, activist, actress, philanthropist and tv host Padma Lakshmi can add one other job to her résumé — Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue mannequin!
The 52-year-old made her debut on this yr’s body-baring summer season version and she or he admitted on a latest episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that she began “freaking out” when she bought the “holy grail” of modeling jobs.
The late-night discuss present host, 55, introduced a photograph of Lakshmi from her photoshoot the place she sported a yellow bikini.
Kimmel then requested her if it was “significant” to be within the sports activities journal’s annual swimsuit printing.
“Yeah, it’s undoubtedly significant,” the “Simple Unique” author mentioned. “I might have killed for it after I was in my 20s and a mannequin as a result of it’s the holy grail.”
She continued: “And so they by no means even known as me for something like this and I actually thought that ship had handed, to be sincere.”
“So, after I bought the decision now, a couple of months in the past, I used to be like actually?” Lakshmi giddily recalled receiving the excellent news.
“I didn’t imagine the information on the cellphone after which I began freaking out and I’m like, ‘I’ve bought to go to the fitness center,’” she mentioned.
She additionally admitted that she needed to get her sweat on and train extra intensely because of overeating whereas filming her Bravo present “High Chef.”
The mother-of-one had simply completed taking pictures the fact present when she bought the decision that she could be modeling on the publication’s cowl.
“I eat a lot meals [on ‘Top Chef’],” she confessed. “First half of the season, now we have a whole lot of contestants, [so we eat] eight or 9 thousand energy a day simply.”
Vogue photographer Yu Tsai captured the spicy photographs for the problem, the place Lakshmi modeled an array of sultry bathing fits.
Sports activities Illustrated Swimsuit Situation Editor-in-Chief MJ Day defined why the corporate selected the Indian-American magnificence for the 2023 cowl.
“The significance of Padma’s presence right here is multifold. She is right here as a result of she feels higher than ever each in and out,” Day said in a statement on May 1. “At 52, she has curated a life that represents who she authentically is: a robust, lovely, sensible, completed girl in her prime.”
“She will be able to make the world look and pay attention and is right here to remind us all that girls will be all of this stuff and really feel attractive AF,” Day added.
Lakshmi celebrated her physique for her 52nd birthday last September and shared a photograph of herself sporting a bikini.
She posted a snapshot from her Hawaiian vacation last year, with the caption, “That is 52.”
She donned a pink-and-white flower crown, and a black string two-piece go well with and posed within the ocean water for the pic.