Padma Lakshmi: Why I ‘Took Social Media Away’ From My Teen Daughter

Padma Lakshmi has parenting on lock — literally! The Top Chef host no longer allows her 13-year-old daughter to use social media.

“I took social media away from her because I felt like she was comparing herself to a lot of people and images that really aren’t good for a teenage girl,” the Taste the Nation With Padma Lakshmi host, 52, exclusively told Us Weekly on the Time100 red carpet in New York City on Wednesday, April 26. “She’s very smart and bright, and my job is to shepherd her on the path of being the best of yourself.”

Lakshmi, who shares daughter Krishna with ex Adam Dell, also revealed to Us the advice she gives to her teen: “I tell her to be kind to herself,” the Tomatoes for Neela author shared.

The Bravo personality — who was named on Time’s 100 most influential people list in 2023 — has been candid about raising her daughter to love herself and her body. In order to do this, Lakshmi explained, language is everything.

“It’s very important how we talk about our bodies. It’s fine to say among your girlfriends, ‘Oh, I’m feeling fat in my jeans.’ But be careful what you say [in front of children],” she explained to Us in 2021, noting she would use a phrase like, “My jeans are not fitting me properly,” instead.

Lakshmi added: “We want to be careful with the language we use on social media, on billboards, all media. We just want to be mindful of our little girl and just make sure we’re speaking appropriately and not exaggerating because it’s a very dangerous landscape for young women. I feel this acutely. Body image is a really, really big deal. Young girls and teenage girls and boys have so much pressure that we didn’t have when we were kids.”

Though the award-winning TV personality doesn’t allow Krishna to have her own socials, that doesn’t mean the teen can’t occasionally get in on her mom’s internet fun.

In September 2022, Lakshmi uploaded a video that showcased the mother-daughter duo’s hilarious bond.

“I was making tomato sauce. Littlhands was serving a roast,” the Love, Loss and What We Ate author captioned the social media clip, in which she attempted to make a homemade sauce — while Krishna put in her own two cents.

“Homemade tomato sauce that you can then freeze and put away for winter,” Lakshmi noted in the tutorial, which was interrupted by Krishna yelling something from afar.

“I’m doing a video!” Lakshmi called back, to which her daughter replied: “Nobody cares!”

“My daughter keeping me humble ????,” the TV host wrote over the footage.

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With reporting by Christina Garibaldi