Padma Lakshmi was spotted holding hands with Black creator Kenya Barris as she crossed a street in New York City on Sunday.
The 53-year-old Top Chef star appeared to be more than just friends with the 49-year-old author and producer as she never left his side as they headed to the McNally Jackson Bookstore in the SoHo neighborhood.
She was also seen walking past vendors while they chatted, and he looked at her phone as she held it to the curb.
The former model wore a cream jacket, fitted black trousers and a coral scarf with white short go-go style boots for a fashion-forward look, while Barris wore an orange puffy jacket, a blue sweater and green camouflage trousers which he paired with Dressed more casually was white sneakers.
Padma has been single for several years after splitting from poet Terrance Hayes in November 2021.
And Kenya is single again after breaking up with his wife of 20 years, Dr., for the third time in June 2022. Rania’s Rainbow Edwards-Barris (portrayed by Tracee Ellis Ross).
Love relationship? Padma Lakshmi was spotted holding hands with Black creator Kenya Barris as she crossed a street in New York City on Sunday
Intimate on the sidewalk: The 53-year-old “Top Chef” star appeared to be more than just friends with the 49-year-old author and producer as she never left his side as they made their way to the McNally Jackson Bookstore in District SoHo were
In lockstep: They were also seen walking past vendors while chatting
A representative for Lakshmi could not immediately be reached for comment.
Both Padma and Kenya wore designer sunglasses. She wore orange-tinted aviators with gold rims while he modeled black sunglasses. And both wore jewelry: She was seen wearing a gold watch while he wore necklaces and diamond earrings.
They held hands as they crossed the street, but once they were on the sidewalk they let go of her and she was looking at her phone when he stole a glance at it.
Both appear to be single.
Kenya has been with his wife on and off for years. He filed for divorce from Dr. Rania “Rainbow” Barris, an anesthesiologist in Los Angeles, but withdrew the application a year later.
After 20 years of marriage, she filed in August 2019.
The Barris have children; Lola, Beau, Kass and Bronx. They have two other children who are over 18 years old.
In court documents, Kenya cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the divorce and requested joint custody of the children.
Rainbow did not respond to Kenya’s divorce in court.
At the time, Kenya spoke quickly about the divorce on his podcast with TI. He said, ‘I’m getting a divorce.’ Who knows what’s going to happen with that.’
Sensitive Feeling: The former model wore a cream jacket, fitted black pants and a coral scarf with white go-go style boots for a fashion-forward look
His attire: Barris was more casual, wearing an orange puffy jacket, a blue sweater and green camouflage pants, which he paired with white sneakers that immediately looked fresh
The mogul added: “It’s part of life.” We didn’t have that when I was growing up – I never saw Cliff and Clair [Huxtable] argue. If you look at sitcoms and our stories, we should be fine. But 52 percent of marriages don’t work. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever been through in my life.’
Kenya continued, “We didn’t know anything about therapy and didn’t really understand it.” We didn’t know that we actually had church or other married friends who could have given us the scaffolding we needed to do it in a different way to accomplish.
“When I talk about this to a generation of people who might be going through the same thing as me, they say, ‘Hey, there are other people out there like me.’ Maybe we can do it. Maybe we can’t. I just want to be as real as possible with my sex.
The divorce was filed about a year after Kenya signed a $100 million deal with Netflix.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Kenya filed a petition to annul his divorce in May 2020.
But about two years later they were back on track again.
According to the Los Angeles Times, he filed for divorce in LA Superior Court in June 2022, citing irreconcilable differences.
He gave September 2020 as the date of their separation.
It takes two: Padma has been single for several years after splitting from poet Terrance Hayes in November 2021. And Kenya is single again after breaking up with his wife of 20 years, Dr. Rania’ Rainbow Edwards-Barris (who is portrayed on Blackish by Tracee Ellis Ross), for the third time in June 2022
Chic Girl in the City: Padma wore designer sunglasses. She wore orange aviator glasses with gold rims. And she added a gold watch
The #blackAF creator and star is seeking joint custody of the children and spousal support from his ex.
Lakshmi has a rich romantic life.
The dark-haired eye-catcher was married to the controversial author Salman Rushdie from 2004 to 2007.
She then worked at Adam Dell intermittently from 2007 to 2021. They have a 14-year-old daughter Krishna Thea together.
The cover girl was linked to Nur Khan, dated Theodore Forstmann from 2009 to 2011 and Vikram Chatwal from 2012 to 2013.
In 2014, the chef was in a relationship with Richard Gere, and in 2021 she will be dating Terrance Hayes. In 2022, there were talks of her having a romance with actor Michael B. Jordan.
In June 2021, she was romantically linked to poet and MacArthur fellow Terrance Hayes. They were seen kissing and holding hands in New York City in the summer of 2021, but that was short-lived.
In November 2021, she told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live that she was single.