This photo of Nigella Lawson shows her carrying some (divorce?) paperwork into Soho Hotel Little House in London’s Mayfair district. I’m really starting to feel badly for Nigella beyond the infamous choking incident (at the hands of her husband of nearly a decade, Charles Saatchi) that lasted 27 minutes. Beyond the physical abuse, she is clearly humilated beyond recognition. Of course, Saatchi explained the incident away as a “playful tiff” while skating with a police caution. Nigella later insisted that she is not “some sort of battered wife,” but she has yet to return home. We’ve already heard that her and Saatchi’s respective lawyers met together last Sunday, and now there’s a very telling development in the mix.
The Sun has published photos of Nigella’s belongings being removed from the marital home that she shared with Saatchi. One can only hope that her decision to take this step was prompted by Saatchi’s latest idiotic declaration that he was merely picking her nose while it looked like he was choking her. Go Nigella:
Removal men carried Nigella Lawson’s belongings from the home she shared with Charles Saatchi yesterday — suggesting their marriage is over.
The swift exit came less than two weeks after the TV chef’s hubby was pictured grabbing her by the throat.
Domestic Goddess Nigella, 53, has been seen without her wedding ring.
Ad mogul Saatchi, 70, accepted a police caution for assault after the attack on her in a restaurant.
As her gear was taken from their £12million home in London’s Chelsea to her Mayfair pad, a pal said: “It really does seem the end.”
Nigella — who has two children from her marriage to journalist John Diamond, who died in 2001 — is off to the US soon to film a series as a judge in reality TV cooking show “The Taste.”
Saatchi could be entitled to much of her estimated £20million fortune because she earned most during their ten-year marriage.
[From The Sun]
Saatchi doesn’t deserve a dime of Nigella’s money, but of course, that’s up to the courts to decide. I would think that it would be worth it to toss him some cash to be rid of him, but it would (of course) be even better if Nigella pressed charges against him for assault and battery.
Here are some photos of poor little Saatchi all alone (while chatting on the phone and smoking) at Scott’s restaurant. He’s sitting on the patio, which is the same place where he throttled his wife. How sentimental.
Photos courtesy of WENN
Good! She needed to get away from that monster!
Her eyes speak volumes!!
She will be much happier away from him.
I thought he was loaded?? Why would he get her money?
He’s a billionaire. I’ll probably get ripped a new one for this but here goes – I’m sorry that Ms. Lawson had to deal with her husband’s bad behavior. It does seem that this wasn’t a one time thing and that without the media attention she would still be in that horrible situation. No one deserves this kind of behavior in their relationship. Having said that, I think that it’s time to concentrate on women in this situation who don’t have the resources of Ms. Lawson and spend the time, energy and resources on those women. I’m sure that Ms. Lawson is feeling embarrassed by the whole situation but I hope that she uses this experience to assist other women in this kind of relationship.
Here, here, excellent post.
I hope this empowers people to get away from abusive partners.
But are you saying her money is some sort of cushion? I think she’s more than ’embarrassed’. Non celebrity DV victims have to hide their situation from family and friends, they don’t have to worry about it being splashed across the world.
Yes it will be easier for her to reestablish herself but it doesn’t help make the break. Being publicly humiliated (possibly her view, not mine) might mean she didn’t make the break on her terms. Every woman’s different so I’m not sure what that will mean for her.
I don’t understand why people think she’s richer than he is.
The man is loaded. Her money is probably pocket change for him.
If anything, she’s taking money off him.
Yes. His art collection alone would probably buy Nigella over several times.
What I hope is that she gets money/property/some of that artwork from HIM, but the old bastard undoubtedly made her sign an iron-clad pre-nup when they got married, so probably not.
Fortunately her family is well off and she still has all her own money. And yeah, although I was horribly disappointed in her when this story broke, I now realize that she was abused terribly as a child and that this horrible marriage was probably a result of it. I just hope she recovers, finds peace and is able to resume her career when she’s on her feet again.
but how much $ did he earn during the marriage?
just because it is easier to calculate her earnings because it is from tv and books, i have a hard time believing he wasnt making money or that his assets werent making money
I am wondering if drug and/or alcohol abuse is involved in this fiasco. He obviously crossed the line terribly and seem to have a reputation for anger. She looks so haunted. Her hair is thinning and has splotches that seem very thin. She’s so beautiful and talented. I think she struggles with her weight sp perhaps she’s turned to drugs to help keep it off. I seem to have heard he was angry about her using coc$@ne. They both seem to drink a lot of wine. Awful situation for her. I hope she can successfully move on.
Alcohol. Without a doubt.
Where did you seem to have heard she was using cocaine?
I don’t think it’s kosher to defame the woman with drug talk like that when she’s already down in the dumps, especially without proof.
I’d like to clarify my comment to add alcohol on his part. Don’t know about her
Her hair doesn’t look to me as if it’s thinning – she has a lot of gray grow-out & needs to get the roots dyed.
Charles Saatchi is co founder of Saatchi & Saatchi advertising firm and is estimated to be worth well over £100mill. His wealth drwarfs hers. If anything it will be her who takes him to the cleaners and not the other way around.
Here’s hoping!
+ at least $100,000,000 for her!
I worked at S&S one summer when I was in college. They had a building all to themselves and were top of the heap in advertising at that point (’89 or so). I love her though and my friend met her at a book signing and said she was really lovely. I love her show and just listening to her voice. I hope she’s OK, she lost her first husband after a long illness and nobody deserves physical or emotional abuse.
So he abuses her and if she divorces him he gets her money?! This is why I will never get married. What utter bullshit. I’m sure there is a prenup though. I agree she looks like a shell of her former self. The humiliation must be so hard on her. She is fab and I hope she leaves him and flourishes.
The courts (in Canada) look at how much both parties earned during the marriage and they try to even it out, so they both get the same benefit from the marriage. However the parties can also negotiate something different – i.e. Nigella could take her own money, waive her rights to anything from the jerk and just walk away. Sometimes people take less than they’re owed because they just want to move on and don’t want the fight because the fight keeps them connected to the other person (in Nigella’s case, the jerk). If I had her millions, I give him the finger (a la Kristen Stewart) and walk away. Glad she’s finally moved out.
Good for her! That guy gives me the creeps, he looks really mean.
She is a gorgeous woman. It’s so sad to see her battered down in these photos – she’s like a shell of the woman I remember from her program.
She will come back to life just as Katie Holmes did when she dumped Tommy Girl.
I really hope so!
I just want to give her a big hug.
Saatchi is crazy rich, probably if anything they’ll walk away with their own money and leave it at that. Having said that, if I were her I’d clean the fucker out.
Love this whole comment:)
He gives off a very unpleasant vibe.
Good for her. She’s stronger than she perhaps thought she was. She shouldn’t feel humiliated. He obviously isn’t She should feel relieved that she’s gotten away from him.
As humiliating as this all was for her, being so public, it probably saved her life. If no one knew about all this she probably would have stayed with him, and who knows what else he would have done, considering he choked her in a public place.
He’s worth millions and has a huge art collection, he has no need for her money and probably made more than her during the marriage. Even if he was dirt poor, what judge would look at the way this all went down and give him anything?
A lot of things have bothered me about this whole incident. But the thing that really gets me is how she could stay in that relationship for 10 years and subject her children to a similar toxic environment in which she herself grew up in.
Isn’t she on record somewhere describing the awful relationship she had with her mother? Why didn’t she want better for her own kids? Why would she allow her children to grow up in an atmosphere where their mother is constantly put down and humiliated by her ‘loving’ husband and then take those experiences into adulthood, perpetuating the cycle? Maybe she has finally realised that they are victims in this too.
In any case, better late than never Nigella. I hope she takes him to the cleaners and finds a really good therapist for herself and her kids.
Those are questions that a person not in an abusive relationship can answer rationally and do something about more immediately.
Abusive relationships are usually cyclic. She may very well have asked herself those very same questions but typically, when things “cool down,” it really does seem like “things will be different tomorrow!” Thereby making it hard to get out.
This is true. Being in an abusive relationship really messes ones mind up. I’ve been there…she is having a very hard time right now. I pray for her.
Exactly. +1
I’ve been there too, and after the abuse comes great times, and you sort of forget how bad it was, or rationalize it, or convince yourself it was worse then it was. Or you believe their lies of they will get help or it won’t happen again. And you love that person so you want to believe them, you want them to get help and have the ‘good’ person with you all the time and rid the ‘bad’ from them.
Before I was in the situation myself, I thought the same things of how could she do that to herself. After the fact I saw it all in a different light. Societies views on abuse, coupled with the shame and disgusting hope that they might fix themselves, also made me hide it from everybody.
When I finally left, I told my friends and family because a part of myself feared I might get sucked back in and this ensured that would never be a possibility. But I still felt like a weak disgusting mess for tolerating the abuse without just leaving after the first fight.
great post, Meaghan.
Please don’t blame the victim. It’s a difficult and very complicated psychology and involves a very low self-esteem, made worse with accusations like this. The only thing that matters now is she is freeing herself and her kids from this tyrant and moving forward.
I’m so glad this happened within the range of cameras this time, because in the public eye her hand has been forced to a better situation.
1. It’s the Sun.
2. He’s worth 110 million I think. Either way, he’s the richest between them so if he would take her money, the backlash would be even worse.
It would be good for Nigella’s brand though and she’ll make the money back in no time. She has (and deserves!) so much sympathy, she can do anything against him and people would support her.
Though glad to hear she is divorcing him, the post-incident photos are really worrying me. It’s like she is too strung out and depressed to make an effort to put on some sort of a game face when she is out in public. Her hair looks uncombed and unhealthy, her expression stricken, her apparel always all black. I think this accurately reflects her mental state and I’m not in any way blaming her, I’d probably never leave the house. It is just troubling me that she looks so bad when she knows she is a public figure with paps lurking outside and she has a heroic history of smiling through many personal tragedies, keeping it together. I fear it is a sign this last tragedy is the final straw and might break her spirit entirely. Please, Nigella, you are beautiful, smart, talented, you will rise again!
It particularly bothers me to see Saatchi all relaxed and dandied up dining Insolentlynat the scene of his crime juxtaposed with her haunted, haggard photos. I look forward to seeing her glowing in a sexy red dress on the arm of a handsome man who gazes at her adoringly.
This is what worries me too. Messy, unkempt, thinning hair and. Haunted expression. I really hope she is not drinking, doing drugs, that she is eating healthy, trying to sleep and surrounding herself with people that care. She looks too close to really breaking down and she is so beautiful and talented. I hope she sees that.
I doubt she’s getting much sleep. And her outer appearance is probably a reflection of how shattered she feels on the inside. I wonder if this whole thing has triggered an episode of depression or something similar. It wouldn’t be unexpected if it did.
You pretty much took the words out of my mouth, boredsuburbanhousewife. Very well said.
That’s what I was about to say, too. I hope she’s ok.
This f*ck Saatchi did more than physically assault her in public. He humiliated her, mocked her dignity and destroyed her public persona.
I agree with you – I am sending her strength vibes. I love her show, love her books, and I want to see that confident, vibrant, warm Nigella reappear some day.
@Suze, I disagree that he has destroyed her public persona. His pathetic attempts to where so transparent, that they were laughable. Even domestic godesses get snot in their noses? Really? He is a raging 3 year old in a crumbling 70 year old body. He has embarrassed himself, except he is too narcissistic to know it.
agreed! vibes of strength it is
I wouldn’t bet the farm on her divorcing him. I read somewhere that she’s just bumping up previous plans to move to LA for some project this summer.
So yes she’s humiliated, and I feel for her a thousand times over, but I’m not sure divorce is on the horizon.
I feel for her so much, I follow Nigella on twitter and since the pics came out she’s been awol.
I know it may sound silly but she used to post a pic almost everyday of her breakfast (yum !), and more importantly she replied to her followers/fans a lot. She always used king words ; she even DM me twice (food related, of course).
I hope she can resume her life (both irl and online), but it’s obvious she fears private questions…
Whoever you are, please stop stealing my name. If you are proud of what you post, you would use your own.
Pia the First
Maybe shes also named Pia? Its not an uncommon name. Just pick a new name, like I do when it happens. Lol.
Or use a Gravatar. That’s what I did when another Lee started posting. Easy-peasy. There’s a link right under the comment box to sign up for one.
All of his explanations are highly suspect. If he is truly lying, it would make Nigella wake up finally. Only she knows the truth. My bet is that was the final straw; to know that he lied blatantly after all the excuses she may have made to herself, her friends and family, she had to confront the truth. That, and the fact that all of this is so public, is why she looks crushed in the pictures. Nigella, you will get through this.
I didn’t think I could be any more disgusted by this callous bastard Saatchi. But the photo of him sitting at exactly the same place where he choked Nigella, just chatting away on the phone, really shocks me.
I can’t imagine being on either side of that violent transaction, & wanting to go back & sit there again. Publicly! Wonder if he’s thinking, “So what’s the big damn deal?!
Not exactly off topic:
Does anyone recall how overweight Charles Saatchi was a few years ago, & how he quickly lost a lot of weight by eating *only* eggs? That’s it—just eggs. And he did this for many, many months. I always thought it was pretty weird how someone who lived with a great cook would choose to live on eggs for the better part of a year. And she has said that he hated evertything she cooks. This says so much about Saatchi, I think. It may sound harsh to say this but I think he has got rather serious mental problems.
I think this marriage was not at all how it seemed to the public (happy) & that Nigella’s beautiful, beaming smile has been masking terrible pain.
Right back at ya, Escaped!
He has written a whole book advocating that one should never consider the feelings of others, only what you want. He is rubbing everyone’s nose in it, including poor Nigella whose actual nose was assaulted by him! I am sure he systematically undermined her over time to the point where she could not even recognize herself or his abuse for what it was. He’s evil.
Hello! 🙂 I just recently heard of his recent book & read an excerpt of “Be the Worst You Can Be: Life’s Too Long For Patience & Virtue.” Then, I had to chase my eyeballs around the room after they popped out of my head. I could not believe the horrific way his mind works. At first, I thought it was a joke. It is hard to imagine Nigella with such a monstrously selfish, nasty person. And yet, society has rewarded him & made him crazy rich.
I’ll bet I’m not the only person who wonders if either of Nigella’s children will write a “Tell-All” about that s.o.b. one of these days—both of their parents are writers, so I am hoping.
I’m sure her children have been very worried. The main thing I long to see is that she emerges from the house next time after HAIR & MAKEUP have been in, STAT! When I see her leaving the house looking beautiful & pulled together with her head held high. That will be the signal she is resolved to move on with her life. She may require some intense therapy first to untangle the mess he has made in her mind with his manipulation & bullying.
I fear he has convinced her she is to blame, has failed in some way.
Yeah he’s a jerk.. your many suspicions that all is not well in your relationship with the mean man are verified, just go with the flow of separation and hang in there..
I think she wants to stay with him in a way. The public humiliation and his behavior afterwards is making this hard to do. Plus, with his narcississtic personality, he is probably now blaming her completely and believe it’s her fault for all this coming down on her. There is a part of her that wants to protect him, I’m sure, and he is furious she’s not coming out publicly standing up for him. Asshole. But if she did, the public would come down on her hard. This is one 50-something-year-old female celeb that men in their 30s up would be fighting each other to take out. She’s beautiful in a non-plasticized way, sexy, and would cook them amazing meals every night, the meals her husband turned his nose up at to keep her down a peg.
Stand strong, Nigella.
I totally agree with you.
Speaking of narcissistic personality, I don’t for one minute believe that he decided that she should leave the marital home for a while. She left and he spun it.
The UK tabloids are saying that HE threw HER out of their house. They’re also saying that this “little tiff” (Saatchi’s description) occurred because two of her assistants took Saatchi business credit cards and charged over $200K worth of designer clothes, shoes, handbags, etc. for themselves in Italy and Germany.
Saatchi fired them and is now suing them to recover the money. Apparently he thought Nigella was the cause of it. That $200K is a drop in the bucket to BOTH of them (especially Saatchi) cuts no ice here. Very strange situation.
It IS summer right? She’s wearing all black and a wool coat.
it’s freezing in London and the west side of France (where I live). We had no spring, and still waiting for summer to arrive.
It’s kinda miserable over here at the moment – wet and a bit chilly.
It does look as if she’s hiding herself under layers and/or using the layers as a sort of protection/security blanket.
I believe all these black coat, black outfit photos are from the same day, a week or so ago. I doubt if she’s been wearing only this since the incident.
I’m in the Pacific NW, and it hasn’t been much better than London.
She always wears black. even on the beach.
God, she looks so stricken and brought low in every recent picture. I wish some of us who’ve been there and are glad we left could take her out for a bottle or three of Chateau Neuf du Pape and explain how much better it gets.
I wish the same thing. It’s the best thing I ever did. It was the real beginning of my life.
This is the hard part, where she has to see all the crazy garbage he’s spent years telling her for what it is. I hope she gets out of this sick situation and finds peace.
She always seemed to me like such a genuine and sweet woman. Like, truly a warm soul. I do empathize with her situation – though I never suffered violent physical abuse, my life was utterly controlled by a much older man for years, and it almost ruined the rest of my life. I hope she sees this through to the other side.
Goodnames & Meegs–both super posts. x
I still get the impression that she feels like she has to leave for the sake of her brand. Like people would lose all respect for her if she stayed with her clearly abusive husband.
I hope this isn’t the case though and she genuinely feels that enough is enough and wants to leave for herself and her children.
As I imagine it, Anthony Bourdain sat her the eff down and said, “Listen, Nige, I love you and you’re a pussy if you get back together with that assclown, so just man up, and let’s make some flan.” No one can convince me it happened in any other way.
Can we have Eric Ripert there, too? Just to murmur platitudes in that accent and escort in an emergency beauty team? (He is French, he would know people.)
Is there only one restaurant in all of London? Or perhaps Mr Asshat isn’t welcome in the others!
It’s their favourite, (or his favourite!), but my money says he’s doing it to flip the invisible bird.
What a relief! I hope it sticks – she is still so young and beautiful and deserves happiness.
On a side note, I seriously covet her coat. Any ID on it?
She looks like she’s still in shock from this whole ordeal. I wanna give her lots of hugs.
I can’t believe that the restaurant hasn’t banned him. Grow some cojones, people!
I’ve always liked her & it upsets me to see her like this. I wonder how long this had been going on? She struggled with the loss of her first husband & now this? I wish her the best & pray she has enough support to stand her ground & leave the marriage.
Good for her! I hope she sticks to this determination and gets own with her life.
I could not stand her coy schtick on her show, but I’m happy for her. Leaving an abusive relationship is difficult, no matter how famous you are or aren’t.
This is good news… esp for the kids.