It was only back a few weeks ago that we finally got any kind of confirmation that Padma Lakshmi’s baby-daddy was in fact the age-appropriate and generally attractive venture capitalist Adam Dell (photos here). Padma didn’t confirm the identity herself – but People Magazine and Page Six did some digging, and it seemed like Dell himself was telling people that he was the father of baby Krishna. Of course, he was generally telling people in the context of “Hey, do you know a good custodial issues lawyer? Because Padma won’t let me see the kid.” Yes, it seems Padma has little to no interest in having Adam in her life, or in Krishna’s life. Now a “source” is telling People the reasoning behind Padma’s decisions:
Since Adam Dell was revealed as the biological father of Padma Lakshmi’s baby daughter Krishna earlier this month, the venture capitalist has been trying to “get back into [Lakshmi’s] life,” says a friend.
But the Top Chef host, who gave birth on Feb. 20, is not open to the idea.
“Her relationship with Dell was nothing more than an on-again, off-again fling. She moved on months ago,” the source says. “The only role he will have in her life going forward is as the biological father of her child. She wants nothing more to do with him.”
Ever since Lakshmi, 39, announced her pregnancy in October she has remained mum about the father’s identity. And when stories surfaced naming Dell – whose tycoon brother Michael founded computer-manufacturing company Dell Inc. – as the dad, Lakshmi still wasn’t ready to discuss their relationship.
“I have a newborn,” Lakshmi told PEOPLE at the time. “I just want some peace and privacy.”
Meanwhile, the fact that Dell, 40, hired a publicist raised eyebrows with Lakshmi. Her friend calls the move “a disgrace.”
A source close to Dell said he is merely “seeking more liberal visitation rights with his child,” and denied that he is trying to be back in Lakshmi’s life.
“Adam … signed an agreement spelling out visitation and should live by it,” Lakshmi’s friend says. “Padma is.”
[From People]
Oh, meow! This is some good gossip, and I believe every word of it. It’s People Mag after all – this is Padma’s version of events. Now, do I believe that Padma is so super-organized that she already got Adam to sign away custody? Kind of. I’m not up on all of the technicalities of custody issues, but if Padma and Adam weren’t married, and she went through the pregnancy and birth totally on her own, I don’t think Adam has a lot of room to try to push through any kind of joint custody or anything like that. Correct me if I’m wrong, lawyers!
Oh, I really want these jeans that she’s wearing. Perfect wash.
Hmmm I hope he doesn’t want access just for publicity and maybe Padma feels he’s too little too late. IMO Krishna should have rights to know her dad. Padma’s star will fade and college will be hugely expensive in 20 years and Krishna may need a Dell computer for typing her essays.
I don’t understand why I don’t like her. I only know her from Top Chef- which I LOVE- but I just don’t like her. Maybe she has a condescending attitude or something.
Maybe he wasn’t around for the pregnancy and the birth because he didn’t know he was the father? I’ve never watch her on TV, I don’t know her as a person, but I think it is a horrible thing to do to a child. Depriving her of her biological father..
She should have gotten pregnant via sperm donation if she didn’t want any involvement from the father of the child.
A father has rights as well, this will probably end up in the courts. Way to go Pashmina or Pasha or Padthai or formally known as Mrs. Salman Rushdie, way to make your daughter’s start in life a magnificent one. Dumb-ass.
Geri Halliwell did the same thing to her daughter’s biological father, he seemed to be a glorified sperm donor much like this guy.
yeah, you’re wrong. sorry. the fact remains that he is the biological father. clearly he does have the resources and appears to be fit to parent in all other regards. absent some serious issues that would jeopardize his ability to parent, he can pretty much guarantee some form of custody.
then again, let’s see how they both lawyer up.
as an aside, just because he may have been a jerk to padma during the pregnancy does not necessarily mean that he will be a bad father. we don’t really know the inner-workings of their relationship. just saying.
@Marjalane .. I feel the same way, love the show but can’t stand her. She does seem condescending but it could be the way she exaggerates words when she speaks and talks soooooo slooooooowwwww.
I tend to agree that Dell may not have known he was the father and probably there was no DNA test while the child was in utero (as those are invasive and often not granted by court order even). Maybe that’s why he wasn’t involved.
It’s not my child or my decision but if it were me, no matter how I felt about the father, if he wanted an active role in the child’s life and seemed to be a positive influence, I would grant it. There are too many dead-beat parents to begin with.
This article just seems to be gossip from Padma’s publicist to undermine Dell’s legal position.
He will have rights to his child if he wants them. She cannot say you cannot be in my daughters life because I don’t want you to be.
If he is truly serious about being in his daughters life then he can go to court and she will not be able to stop him.
I hope he is doing this because he truly wants to be a dad, not because he wants the publicity.
yes, the kid should have the right to know her father (unless dangerous, obviously). bottom line. any other decision is selfish.
So you really don’t think he should be able to have joint custody only because he was not around during the pregnancy and birth Kaiser???? That is nuts-especially if he did not even know he was the father to be(possibly due to Padma’s words). He is still the father NOW and deserves the right to be a part of his child’s life. What has he done to deserve otherwise?
Unless this guy is a total douche (I live quasi near Austin and no word about him coming my way.. Texans looove to gossip!) Sounds like this chick wanted a big name baby. Dell is a pretty big name to hitch a baby to.
I like Padma but I think she is being mean and selfish and she is ruining her reputation. She really should try to work this out with Dell in private and not have her “friends” talk to the media. Why is it such a big deal? Even if she hates her baby daddy, the child deserves to have contact with him. Padma needs to think about this and do the right thing.
Yeah, if she wanted no dad involved she should have used a sperm donor. He is the father so he should have rights to see the baby as much as she does.
Not only do Father’s have rights, too but a child has a right to have two parents in their life if that is possible (assuming the guy isn’t a psycho or something). It can only benefit a child to have two healthy, normal parents in their life who love them. Denying the child that is not right and can only breed resentment later in life.
There are times on this list that I recall a coversation with my dad many years ago. District attorney’s always perfer rape trial juries be predominately female. Reason? Women will always find a way to blame the woman.
Padma the mom is wrong because we think she is mean, snobby, draws out her words should have used a sperm donor etc. We don’t know the total story maybe there are other reasons that she doesn’t want him in her life child’s until the baby is older.
Could be much more to the relationship they had than we know. So we can’t just assume she just doesn’t want the dad around. Maybe he said some not so nice things to her before she realized she was pregnant.
Even if it was an “oops” pregnancy – and really, if you don’t use protection, you should expect the possibility – and she hates the baby daddy, she needs to suck it up and let him be a father. She doesn’t have to see him even. I’m sure she has an assistant or a nanny to pass the kid off on his visitation days.
Unless he’s a totally abusive, horrible jerk, he certainly should have rights to see his child. Is that so bad? She ought to be happy that he wants to see his child, assuming again that he’s a decent person.
That’s just wrong. Let the little girl have her daddy. I am in my mid-30’s and grew up without my father and I still miss the idea of a dad. She deserves to have him accessible.
hmmm… i dunno. it seems there must be more to this than her simply being a mean woman who would keep a father from her baby. i dont think i can judge her until i have all the facts and i dont think we ever will…
Ugh. If she wanted to parent alone then she should have conceived with a sperm donor! I don’t understand why some women feel they have a right to cut out the father from their child’s life!
There are so many fatherless children in the world, it’s seems a waste to actively try to keep a child from knowing his/her father! Unless he’s a child abuser, violent, or has mental problems there’s no good reason to do so!
@nycmom10024 Do you mean defense attorneys? Because why would the DA want women on the jury if they think the jury will blame the woman? The purpose is to win a conviction so they are going to want whomever on the jury they think will blame the defendant (male in this case) and sympathize with the victim (woman) so by your reasoning they should want men on the jury.
I don’t let my daughter near her biological father. He has no contact with her and I wouldn’t let him. Perhaps she has a reason. Perhaps she just wants her life to be uncomplicated like mine. I get no money of my daughter’s biological father and no help at all and it is easy to not have to split parent.
I think Padma is a control freak and regardless of how she feels about Dell he is the father and I believ is entiltled to spend time with his child.
TG _ YES! Thanks major typo. Meant the Defense attorneys. not the DA
SEX ED 101: If you’re gona lay down and have SEX, know who/what you’re dealing with… Adam Dell has every right to be a part of Krishna’s life… and if you didnt want to conceive a baby with him you should’ve used protection, duh!
Jesus take the Wheel
Really this ALWAYS amuse me it’s impressive how our society is still blaming the woman even in womans mind and i’m talking about all society’s in every country it’s pretty much the same reaction…MUST BE THE WOMANS FAULT or poor GUY he’s only trying be part of his child life…yeah right.
NOBODY knows what he did to her for her don’t want his in their life’s SO WHY jump on the conclusion that she is a “mean selfishly person” maybe JUST MAYBE she’s trying PROTECT herself and her daughter from a “MEAN SELFISHLY PERSON”.
What the problem with you people put yourself or someone from your family in HER POSITION and try to think that something must being happening for her act this way if he was a lovely great man she probably wouldn’t mind let him be part of the family so until is proved that she is just acting like a bitch for bitches reasons i gonna be on the WOMAN sides something very RARE since the beginning of HUMANITY.
“Adam … signed an agreement spelling out visitation and should live by it”
If there was a signed agreement before conception, actually, I don’t see how he can change his mind now. From the tone of some comments, I can’t help but think that if there was a signed agreement and she was now pushing for him to be involved against his will, there’d be bitching about her then too.
Also, I think we’re all jumping the gun here. Krisha is barely a month old, and Padma is breastfeeding. What kind of visitation are ya’ll imagining?
yep, if she tried to shut him out completely, that wouldnt fly in court unless he was some kind of abuser. and even though he signed an agreement, those things can be amended. doesnt matter the status of their romantic relationship. if he wants to be involved and is general good guy, can prob get plenty of rights.
if the kid is yours, you can petition for custody. doesn’t matter what you sign, you can petition the court to re-evaluate the conditions of your agreement.
ok thats basically what andrea just said lol didn’t see that.
Rianna: I don’t let my daughter near her biological father. He has no contact with her and I wouldn’t let him.
======================================
How does your daughter feel about that?
First from what was written above “they had an on again off again relationship, she gets pregnant, the guy probably ran from the situation, he has the money to do so, just pay the child support, only he knows how he felt when he first saw his child, he could have fallen in love with the baby and now wants more time with her (the baby).
But really who orders a publicist, because of a new baby, she didn’t even name the father until he open his mouth to say he is the father.
Like above who knows how he treated her, for her to be cold and distance herself from him now.
What the problem with you people put yourself or someone from your family in HER POSITION and try to think that something must being happening for her act this way if he was a lovely great man she probably wouldn’t mind let him be part of the family
This is about the kids. When Jude “the douche” Law didn’t see his new baby for the first 6 months of her life he got tons of criticism for that. In general people do not support deadbeat dads.
So in Padma’s case, it’s the mom interfering with the dad’s involvement. Unless she has a better reason than wanting to be a single parent, she’s going to be criticized — as she should! It’s selfish to want to cut ties with the parent of your child because the relationship is over. It’s not right when men do it (become a deadbeat because they’re not dating the mom). Nor is it right when woman do it (want to cut the father because they’re not dating). Many of these folks want to create new families with their new partners. Ugh.
Maybe he signed the visitation contract before she was born. Honestly you never understand how much you are going to love and care about them until you see them, hold them and realize you would move heaven and earth if they asked you to.
I seriously do no think it super complicated, I think old Padma has DADDY ISSUES (cough, Rushdie, cough cough) and is trying to protect her daughter from pain that she may have been inflicted with. Her father left her mother and had a whole other family that he was super attentive to, i think she fears he will want to be in her life and then disappear if he gets married and starts a new family. I think she is just being protective.
ok @Iggles my problem here is the overall blame on the woman for wanted protect her and her child from what just her and him knows what was the problem between them and the “mean selfishly” comments toward her just because he’s NOW WANT be part of the kids life even have SIGNED before that he DIDN’T WANT to.
But i agree with your comment BOTH HAVE rights and the kids needs to be put ahead from selfish arguments if none of the parents are dangerous crazy persons. I just don’t like how womans like to automatically blame the other woman and don’t think that this could be happening with her or a family member and that are always unknown circumstances that could explain her and his reasons/actions thats all.
@Cheyenne. She is 3 years old, she has never had contact with him so I don’t think that she cares.
I will tell her in time about him and what happened and why he is no longer a part of her life.
I think it is personal choice in the end. I have a very stable, happy and loving relationship with my father but my daughter would never get that with her biological father so why put her through that?
As I said in my above post. Sometimes things aren’t always as they seem.
I absolutely despise this woman. I don’t know what it is about her – I just think there is NO REASON for the tremendous hype built around her. She’s on a TV show and talks really slowly and is pretty. That’s it. She has no actual talent or, from what it sounds like in her quote-snippets, intelligence.
Besides, any woman dumb enough to be the FOURTH Mrs. Salman Rushdie, well, she’s not getting any gilded invitations to any Mensa meetings in the near future.
I’m in agreement with most here.
If she didn’t want a father involved, use a sperm donor or adopt. She has the money for any option she could want.
If he’s such a horrible guy that she doesn’t want near her kid, why was she involved with him at all, and didn’t use birth control?
If he’s a decent guy and just wants some rights to see his kid, he should be allowed those.
If there’s some situation where he’s dangerous or unfit to parent, then she should prove that to the courts. But for her to prevent him from seeing the baby because she doesn’t like him isn’t fair to him or the child.
I’m not trying to blame her because she’s the woman in the situation, but because as an adult she has made these choices and is responsible for her actions.
I wondered how the comments were going to go in this one… just to compare with the comments on Jude Law’s story.
It takes two to tango and if Padma didn’t want to continue tangoing with Dell then she should have used a sperm donor. Unless Dell is a threat to her and Krishna then he has every right to be in the child’s life as much as is practical. If they had a falling out, then Padma has to deal with it.
@mslewis & mel: I couldn’t agree more.
I also agree with Just a poster. Frankly, I love Texans for their “down to earth” candor and “no nonsense” analysis. Padma was looking for an “A-list” sperm donor to father her child, period. The circumstances of their relationship are not nearly as important as fostering a cooperative relationship for the sake of their daughter. No one knows what the future may hold and Adam Dell may turn out to be an excellent father. If he sincerely wants to exercise his parental rights with no strings attached then so be it! Perhaps this is all Mr. Dell essentially wants and NOT PADMA which may be why their relationship isn’t as she would like it to be.
No, it’s usually not – or shouldn’t be- “personal choice” when it comes to parents having rights to their children. They have rights to them, and SHOULD, period, unless abusive.
Padma knows this guy. We don’t. There is no telling what kind of relationship they had or what kind of person he is. My mom divorced my father and was willing to allow him to be in our lives. She told us about his personality and how he wasn’t there when my youngest sister was born and he didn’t really care about our family. We didn’t listen. We gave him every chance in the world.
He is a surfer, vegetarian, overall nice guy.
He disappeared one day and has never come back. He was set to come pick me and my siblings up and he just didn’t. Two days later, my mom was called to court to tell her that he wanted to relinquish all parental rights. He didn’t WANT to be our father. I don’t legally have a father because he chose that, not because my mom forced him out of our lives. She knew he would do something like that. She was right. She knew him. Padma knows this man.
We have no idea what is truly happening with these people. We have no idea what their relationship is like nor what he is like as a person. Do not try to blame Padma and act like she’s a terrible person when you don’t know her or why she’s hesitant to let him have more liberal visitation rights.
Whatever,
I don’t believe the guy can be THAT terrible that she is merely “protecting” the baby, or something like that. I think she just wanted a baby to raise, and managed to get pregnant with this dude, so she kept it–but this dude is NOT a guy she wants in her life.
My opinion on that is–too bad. People jump all over the skanky male celebs stupid enough to impregnate crazy skanks looking for meal tickets during one night stands; they expect them to pay child support and “be there” for the baby (looking at Jude Law and that fame-whoring nut he impregnated while high on cough medicine/whatever).
Can’t have a double standard! If he wants to be the baby’s daddy, then too bad Padma.
L @44 – I can’t see your full sign on but your story is heart-breaking. I am sure you are well-adjusted now, but I hope you never felt unworthy. It is his fault he didn’t want to experience the joy that is/was his children. How unfortunate.
Maybe she found out he doesn’t have as much money as his brother Michael.
Dell Suck cocks!
Worst computer in technological history.
not surprised why laxmi does not wants herself associated with the worst creators of laptop’s family.
hahahaaaaaaaa
Yea, I’m not going to judge until more details come out. But I am also a Padma fan…