Padma Lakshmi: Page Six Sexy

The beautiful Padma Lakshmi gets personal on the cover of Page Six magazine, available Thursday (December 3) inside the New York Post.

The 39-year-old Top Chef hostess, who’s expecting a baby next year but hasn’t revealed the father yet, opened up about being recognized, going easier on her body during her pregnancy and refusing only to eat low-cal foods.

On being recognized: “I went to a bar mitzvah on the Upper East Side last year, and not to toot my own horn, but I might as well have been Michael Jackson to these 13-year-old boys and girls. There were something like 30 children around me, and they were all practically hyperventilating. I had this swarm of little kids going, ‘Oh, my god! Oh, my god!’ Kids are so authentic, so pure, and they’d be telling me, ‘My sister and I had an amuse-bouche contest, and we need you to tell us who should have won.’ I think that’s really cool.”

On going easier on her body during pregnancy: “One of the reasons I think I’ve gained weight pretty quickly during my pregnancy is that I’m not exercising as much as I do normally…I can’t. I’m feeling tired, and I have this business to run. You hope that with age, what you pay for in gravity, you gain in gravitas. I’m sure my thighs looked better when I was 25, but I think my mind is better today.”

On balancing diet and exercise: “You can eat and work out, or you can be the person who only eats a cucumber every day. I’d get really irritable if all I ate was a cucumber, so I have to work hard.”

For more from Padma, including exclusive photos from the shoot, pick up Page Six magazine inside the New York Post or visit PageSixMag.com!