Padma Lakshmi: Miracle Baby Happened 'Accidentally'

Padma Lakshmi has been fiercely private when it comes to her daughter, not even revealing the father of now-3-year-old Krishna at first. But in a new interview with the Daily Mail, the Top Chef star opens up about her conception in the hopes that her story will hearten others who suffer from endometriosis. After suffering debilitating symptoms for years, Lakshmi was finally diagnosed with the condition at age 36, and was told she'd be unlikely to ever conceive—even if she went through IVF. So she went off birth control, only to discover she was pregnant after a short relationship with Adam Dell in 2010.

"It ended up happening accidentally," says Lakshmi, now 42. "I’d spent most of my life trying not to get pregnant and it was only after stopping taking birth control—because I was told that I couldn’t conceive—that it happened at all." Her doctor called the conception "nothing short of a medical miracle." Lakshmi says she "always wanted to be a mother, but I never knew it would be so much fun and I’d enjoy it so immensely. My daughter is such great company." And, though she doubts it will happen due to her age and diagnosis, "I would love to have another child or two." She started the Endometriosis Foundation of America in 2009 to raise awareness of the condition. (More Padma Lakshmi stories.)