Padma Lakshmi Responds to Public Custody Battle
NEW YORK (CBS) Padma Lakshmi is not happy that her custody battle with her daughter's father, venture capitalist Adam Dell, is playing out publicly.
"She's a single working mother who is trying very hard to have a peaceful and calm environment for her daughter," a friend of the "Top Chef" host told People magazine. "The recent events are making it difficult."
On Wednesday, Dell, the brother of Dell Inc. founder and billionaire Michael Dell, filed legal papers in New York for custody of Lakshmi's 11-month old daughter, Krishna.
Lakshmi's rep said in a statement, obtained by Us magazine, that she only learned about the filing via the media.
"24 hours after the New York Post was told about Adam Dell's lawsuit, neither Padma Lakshmi nor her lawyers has received a copy of it; they only learned of it through a statement Mr. Dell provided to the press," her rep said.
Her attorney Jay D. Silverstein told People that "she is saddened and gravely disappointed that Mr. Dell has chosen a very public means of filing his petition with the court rather than doing so in a confidential or sealed manner, which is customary in cases involving a very young child."
However, Dell's laywer, Bill Zabel, told the Post that they were forced to go to court because Lakshmi "refused to negotiate a reasonable co-parenting agreement."