OnlyOnAOL: Padma Lakshmi makes brave confession in deeply personal new book

BY DONNA FREYDKIN

Padma Lakshmi digs deep in her honest, unaffected food memoir, "Love, Loss, and What We Ate," an emotional, food-fueled journey through her childhood and adulthood. She writes about dealing with endometriosis, about her insecurities with her appearance, about the accident that resulted in the scar on her arm. And she also reveals, for the first time, that she was sexually abused at age seven -- something that is especially resonant with her as the mother of a daughter, aged 6.

So yes, you could say that she dug deep to pen this book. "The most difficult part of writing this was trying to be really honest but making sure it had a good narrative arc," says Lakshmi. "There were a lot of times I didn't know how the book would turn out or what it would be."

Lakshmi was also most concerned about her parents and her daughter reading the book, admitting to AOL that this is the first time she's spoken openly about her sexual abuse.

"One of the most difficult things in that book is when I talk about an instance that happened when I was 7 years old and I was sexually molested. This is the first time, I've openly said it to anyone other than my parents," Lakshmi shared. "My daughter is six, and she's only a year younger than I was when it happened. And I already talk to her – I tell her you know, if anybody touches you, it doesn't matter if they're related to mommy or daddy, it doesn't matter if they're anybody you know.​"

Aside from the honest and brave confession, the former model and "Top Chef" host has the same self-doubts that plague most women. And she's delightfully frank about them, talking about her weight fluctuations while shooting her show -- which airs its season finale on March 17.

"I do have body issues. I think everyone does. I have them," says Lakshmi. "It was always meant to be a really frank book, to have discussions openly about things we don't want to talk about -- our bodies, our periods. Yet we all have periods, and that's the thing."

So no, her book doesn't mince words.

"I really wanted to raise awareness of endometriosis. I couldn't ask other people open up about something so private if I wasn't willing to do it myself. I wanted to have a frank conversation. I didn't want to write a book that was fuzzy at the edges," she says.

Now, as the mom of daughter Krishna, Lakshmi understands what her own parent, a nurse, went through raising her on a meager salary in New York.

"One thing that motherhood gave me was so much empathy for my own mother, who was also a single parent. She did it. She still took me to a Broadway show now and again," she says.