Top Chef presenter Padma Lakshmi accidentally revealed the sex of her unborn baby when she appeared on a US chat show.

The TV star, who was previously married to novelist Salman Rushdie, referred to the baby as “she”– and then seemed to quickly correct her mistake.

“She was kicking,” she said when asked about her baby bump during an interview with late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon.

She then quickly added: “He was kicking. I’m not saying so I use he or she intermittently.”

Lakshmi, 39, announced her pregnancy in October this year.

But the Top Chef star, who has struggled with endometriosis – a medical condition in which the uterus’ lining grows in other areas of the body – has so far refused to reveal the identity of her child’s father.

Sitting down on Fallon’s sofa and cradling her stomach, Lakshmi expressed surprise at her on-screen appearance. “Look how big I look on the monitor,” she said.

But she said she was excited about the birth – despite having previously been “freaked out” by the thought of pregnancy.

“I really wanted a baby. I was so excited and I was really looking forward to being a Mom, but I was really scared about being pregnant,” she confessed.

“I was freaked out about what would happen.

“But I’m totally blessed out. I wish I could bottle it. I have a low level high all the time.”

Lakshmi, who split from Rushdie in 2007, is six months pregnant.