Richard Gere and Padma Lakshmi Break Up

Time Out of Mind actor and Top Chef host dated for six months

By Zach Johnson Oct 14, 2014 1:00 PMTags
Padma Lakshmi, RIchard GereGetty Images

Please pack your knives and go, Richard Gere.

The Pretty Woman actor, 64, and Bravo's Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, 44, have ended their romance, E! News confirms. The notoriously private pair began dating six months ago and managed to avoid being photographed together for the duration of their courtship. The New York Post's Page Six first reported the breakup, with a source explaining that Gere and Lakshmi "decided they would be better as friends."

Lakshmi recently announced on TV that she was single. She did not mention the split during Friday's appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, nor did she bring up Gere's name on NBC's Today Tuesday.

While speaking at the Film Society of Lincoln Center last week, Gere said he's proud of his new movie, Time Out of Mind, in which he plays a homeless man. "What probably really helped was I was right in the middle of a divorce [from Carey Lowell], so the emotions were right on the surface," the star joked.

Lakshmi was married to author Salman Rushdie from 2004 to 2007. She dated billionaire Teddy Forstmann until he died of brain cancer in 2011. Lakshmi also has a 3-year-old daughter, Krishna Thea Lakshmi-Dell, with venture capitalist ex-boyfriend Adam Dell. Gere has a son, Homer, 14, with Lowell.

Time Out of Mind is in limited release. Top Chef returns Oct. 15 at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo.

(E!, Bravo and NBC are all part of the NBCUniversal family.)