Padma Lakshmi Custody Battle: Top Chef Host Makes Peace With Baby Daddy

Foodie beauty ends child dispute with ex Adam Dell, who now has expanded visitation and custody rights, as well as legal recognition as the child's father

By Alexis L. Loinaz Mar 15, 2012 8:37 PMTags
Padma Lakshmi, KrishnaWagner Az, PacificCoastNews.com

Padma Lakshmi has a new recipe for family life.

E! News has confirmed that the Top Chef host has settled her bitter custody battle with baby daddy Adam Dell after he filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court last year claiming she choked his visitation time with daughter Krishna, now 2 years old, and requesting full custody of her.

Did he get it?

Not quite, but the pair have come to a compromise.

"They settled privately out of court and came to an agreement," a source tells E! News.

Notably, he's now legally recognized as the father of the baby, who will carry the name Krishna Thea Lakshmi-Dell.

(That last name has some serious cachet: Adam is the brother of computer mogul Michael Dell, which means Krishna's got both Top Chef bites and digital bytes in her enviable lineage!)

But that's not all.

Dell also gets expanded visitation and custody rights, which presumably means he can now shower more love and attention on her.

Lakshmi's publicist tells E!, "Officially we have no comment, but as Krishna's mother, Padma asks that her child's privacy be respected and the media shift their attention elsewhere."

Lucky Krishna—she's rolling in tons of attention these days: She was recently named the beneficiary of a trust fund set up for her by Lakshmi's late ex-boyfriend, billionaire businessman Theodore Forstmann, who died of brain cancer last November.