Richard Gere and Padma Lakshmi End Their Brief Romance

The Pretty Woman star, Richard Gere, 64, and Bravo’s Top Chef foodie Host, Padma Lakshmi, 44, have called off their secret romance after just 6 months of dating.

Gere started dating Padma while he was going through his divorce from his wife of 11 years, Carey Lowell. Though both the celebs have not declared openly their relationship and managed to keep it at low profile, but as per sources the pair was having fun. According to an insider the affair started quietly. As per the source, they are far from being called a couple. But they were just dating. The insider said, “It’s the first time Padma has dated anyone since Teddy [Forstmann, who died in 2011], and it’s something she’s been approaching very, very delicately.”

In the past, both the stars have been in high-profile relationships. Gere was married to supermodel Cindy Crawford from 1991-1995. Gere has a teenage son, Homer, 14, from ex-wife Lowell . The Indian-born author of cookbook, Padma Lakshmi was earlier married to Satanic Verses writer Salman Rushdie for 3 years from 2004 through 2007. Padma has a 3 year old daughter, Krishna Thea, with financier ex-boyfriend Adam Dell (brother of computer maker Michael Dell). She dated late billionaire Teddy Forstmann.

The couple realised that they would be better off as friends and are quite busy with their work. Gere was busy promoting his movie Time Out of Mind, in which he portrays a homeless man living on the streets of New York and trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter. He is about to start with a new film, titled Oppenheimer by award-winning Israeli director Joseph Cedar. Lakshmi filmed a season of her TV show Top Chef in Boston last summer, and has been travelling.

The Top Chef host recently revealed in an interview that she has to work really hard to keep in shape while she is required to be consistently surrounded by food in her job.