Richard Gere and Padma Lakshmi split after six months of relation

Richard Gere has split from Top Chef star Padma Lakshmi after six months of relationship.

According to reports, the stars have called time on their romance because they were too busy with their respective careers.

A source added to the New York Post newspaper’s Page Six column: “They decided they would be better as friends.”

Richard Gere, 65, who split from Carey Lowell after 11 years of marriage last September, has been busy filming Time Out of Mind in New York, in which he plays a homeless man.

Last week, the actor joked of filming: “What probably really helped was I was right in the middle of a divorce, so the emotions were right on the surface.”

Meanwhile, Padma Lakshmi, 44, was filming a new season of Top Chef in Boston over the summer and then went travelling. The couple were first romantically linked in April but stayed low key and were not spotted together very often.

Richard Gere and Carey Lowell – who have 14-year-old son Homer together – never officially confirmed they were separating but were said to have been living apart for some time before their split.

He was also previously married to Cindy Crawford for four years until 1995.

Former model Padma Lakshmi was previously married to author Salman Rushdie for three years until 2007 and dated billionaire Teddy Forstmann until he died of brain cancer in 2011 at the age of 71.

Padma Lakshmi has a three-year-old daughter, Krishna, with Adam Dell.