New York, Apr 15, (PTI): Supermodel, popular TV host, Emmy award nominee, these are few of Padma Lakshmi's achievements but the Indian beauty says that her way up was tough being a woman of colour and an immigrant. 

 
The 'Top Chef' who moved to the US while still a teenager said that she has worked hard for all that she has today, reported New York Daily News online.

"I have been working hard all my life ever since I got out of college to build a career with my own hands and own mind. Being an immigrant in the country, being a woman of color, it's an effort," said Lakshmi who has been a resident of New York for the past two decades.
But the 41-year-old said that her ethnicity is not the core of her life.

"I don't get up in the morning thinking, 'I'm an Indian' or 'I'm a woman' or 'I'm a person of color'. I get up thinking, 'Alright, what can I do to accomplish what I find interesting in the world?' I never start from a place of my ethnicity or my gender, I start from a place of ambition and just curiosity about the world," she said.

The model-actress said that her personal life has often unjustly overshadowed her professional work.

Lakshmi's marriage and divorce from Booker prize winner Salman Rushdie, her ongoing custody battle with her 1-year-old daughter Krishna's father and her relationship with billionaire Ted Forstmann, has made her life tabloid fodder.

"First of all, a lot of what you read is just plain untrue, and then a lot of it is really personal so I can't even defend myself," said the model.