RICHARD GERE & TOP CHEF PADMA BUST-UP

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Richard Gere and Top Chef stunner Padma Lakshmi have split up after 6 months.

The 65-year-old actor and 44-year-old TV beauty “decided they would be better as friends,” an insider told the  NY Post.

Reportedly, both were swamped with too many work commitments to spend time with one another.

Lakshmi was Gere’s first major romance in the wake of his 11-year marriage to Carey Lowell ending.

The two kept an extremely low profile during their time dating since April.

Both have been involved in high-profile relationships in the past: Gere with Lowell, and supermodel ex- Cindy Crawford who he was married to from 1991 thru 1995.

Lakshmi was formerly married to Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie from 2004 until 2007, and involved with financier Adam Dell (who fathered her 4-year-old daughter Krishna Thea) and late billionaire Teddy Forstmann.

Busy Padma.