British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson admits cocaine use
TV cook defiant while giving evidence in fraud case against former aides as she admits using illegal drugs but denies being an 'habitual user'
Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson admitted in court on Wednesday that she had taken cocaine, but denied being a habitual user. She accused her ex-husband of trying to “destroy” her, during a lacerating day of testimony that laid bare a materially affluent but deeply troubled marriage.
Lawson said her former husband Charles Saatchi, a millionaire art collector, spread drug rumours about her after he was photographed gripping her throat outside Scott’s restaurant in London. The widely published image ignited harsh criticism of Saatchi and was soon followed by their divorce in July.
“He told everyone that he was taking cocaine out of my nose at Scott’s when he knows that is a lie,” Lawson said, testifying at the fraud trial of two former assistants. She said her ex-husband spread “false allegations that I was a habitual user” who snorted cocaine daily.
“People who do that are a lot thinner than I am,” she said. “I have never been a drug addict.”
Lawson, 53, was appearing as a prosecution witness at the trial of Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo, long-time employees who worked as nannies, cleaners and assistants in the couple’s London home.
The Grillos – sisters from Calabria in southern Italy – are accused of using credit cards loaned to them by Lawson and Saatchi for household expenses to spend 685,000 pounds (HK$8.7 million) on luxury clothes, accessories and rooms at high-end hotels.
