By Tracy Wright For Dailymail.com
Published: 20:03 GMT, 14 March 2019 | Updated: 20:03 GMT, 14 March 2019
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She became America's favorite foodie as the host of Top Chef.
And Padma Lakshmi immersed herself in culture as she caught the subway in Hong Kong ahead of the finale of her hit Bravo show.
The 48-year-old actress revealed a glimpse into her difficult childhood in a personal essay to her five-year-old self for a CBS News series where she reflected on being sexually assaulted and raped.
Beaming: Padma Lakshmi immersed herself in culture as she caught the subway in Hong Kong ahead of the finale of her hit Bravo show
'Your voice won't be heard by those who are supposed to love and protect you,' she wrote. 'At age seven, you will be molested. You will use words to call it out, but you'll think those words don't matter because life will go on as if nothing happened. The sovereignty of your body will be violated again. You will be raped at 16.'
Lakshmi first detailed the abuse in a #MeToo story in a New York Times op-ed shared in September, where she revealed she was raped by her then 23-year-old boyfriend.
Padma was only 16-years-old when the college student sexually assaulted her in her sleep.
