Nigella Lawson's love life from husband's tragic death to Saatchi restaurant row
Nigella Lawson is loved by viewers at home but behind the scenes, she has endured some personal tragedies.
The celebrity chef is arguably one of the best-known and loved female TV cooks - famed for her flirty innuendos in front of the camera and for making even the most mundane things sound sensual, particularly the mee-cro-wah-vay (microwave). The 63-year-old started her career in journalism but pursued her passion for cooking thanks to the encouragement of her late husband.
Nigella rose to fame in 1998 with her debut cookery book, How To Eat, and a year later, she launched her own Channel 4 cooking show, Nigella Bites. Tonight, the mum-of-two returns to telly with her BBC One special, Nigella's Amsterdam Christmas, where she savours the festive delights in the capital - a city she has been visiting at Christmastime for decades.
But on the road to her success, Nigella has had many ups and downs when it comes to her love life. Tragically, just three years after her cookbook took off, her first husband, John Diamon, died of throat cancer. As a journalist also, he was credited for helping his wife develop her niche brand and transform her into the confident national treasure we know and love.
Nigella was married to her first husband John Diamond before he tragically died aged 47 (REX/Shutterstock)The pair met while both working at The Telegraph in 1989, then married just three years later in Venice, Italy. "I was a journalist - not a food journalist, but I did do quite a bit of cooking. As a consequence I cooked for editors quite a bit," Nigella explained to BBC Radio 2 after his death. "John, my late husband, said to me, 'You always talk about food in this really confident way. You should write about it!' So I did." John was diagnosed with oral cancer in 1995 and found it therapeutic to write about his illness in his column and in his best-selling book, C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too.
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The popular journalist, who is the father of Nigella's children Cosima and Bruno, was praised for his witty and thought-provoking articles. But he also had a desire for Nigella, who has admitted she is naturally shy, to be a success and pushed her further into the spotlight. He wrote down a heartbreaking final message to his wife, confessing he was immensely proud of her. "How proud I am of you and what you have become. The great thing about us is that we have made us who we are," read John's emotional message. Sadly, John passed away in March 2001 while his wife had been filming her TV show.
Devastated Nigella wanted to keep busy, so took just two weeks to grieve before going back to work. "I took a fortnight off. But I'm not a great believer in breaks," she told The Telegraph in May 2001. "I don't want to be rattling around inside my own head. I did feel I was spiralling into a Kathy Burke character and tried going out, but I prefer it here. Filming keeps me busy. It absorbs me. Of course it is displacing certain thoughts but, in a way, I don't think grieving should be your full-time job. That seems a rather modern idea. To act as if you don't have a life is probably not sensible, especially when you have children."
There was a tremendous response to John's death, with most newspapers devoting many pages to the journalist. Nigella wasn't focused on the public sympathy, but kept press clippings about her husband in what she described as her 'Morbidobox'. "I was pleased because I hadn't foreseen any of it, in the sense that I didn't know John was going to die when he did," she said.
Two years after John passed away, Nigella remarried in 2003 to wealthy art collector and advertising agency founder, Charles Saatchi. But their marriage broke down after 10 years.
Nigella Lawson was married to Charles Saatchi for 10 years before their very public breakdown (Alan Davidson/The Picture Library Ltd)
She has said she is in a 'better place' since leaving the millionaire (Getty Images)Their relationship infamously came to a head in 2013 when they were pictured by the Sunday People outside a Mayfair restaurant - with Saatchi's hand gripped around her throat.
Following a huge backlash and concern for Nigella's safety, Saatchi released a statement claiming he was 'innocently helping to clean her nose'. The 80-year-old art collector, who accepted a police caution for assault following the incident, said: "Even domestic goddesses sometimes have a bit of snot in their nose. I was trying to fish it out."
The multi-millionaire claimed they were engaged in an 'intense debate' about children, with him adding: "I held Nigella's neck repeatedly while attempting to emphasise my point. There was no grip. It was a playful tiff." Later that year, Nigella lifted the lid on the 'emotional abuse' she suffered at the hands of Saatchi as she provided evidence in court during a fraud trial of two of her personal assistants.
She claimed: "He told everyone that he was taking cocaine out of my nose. But what actually happened was that somebody walked by with a very cute baby in a stroller and I said, 'I am so looking forward to having grandchildren', and he grabbed me by the throat and said, 'I am the only person you should be concerned with. 'I am the only person who should be giving you pleasure'. That is what happened."
A year after exiting the marriage, Nigella told Michael McIntyre on his chat show that she was in a 'better place'. "I have had better times. It's spring and I am feeling better and I am very happy to be here. I have been alive longer than you, so I know life has its dips and it can get better and you can't fight it," she said.
In 2019, she opened up to The Irish Times about the 'trauma' she went through as the split played out. "It was generally about feeling exposed and under attack," she shared. "In a way, it would have been much better for me to be able to speak openly." It is unknown if Nigella is in a relationship currently as she largely keeps her private life out of the spotlight.
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Last year, whilst filming in Sydney for a new season of Channel Seven cooking show My Kitchen Rules, Nigella was papped beaming whilst on a date with a mystery man. Later in the year, the chef was seen walking arm in arm with entrepreneur Alex Fane before the pair shared a roadside picnic together.
Nigella's Amsterdam Christmas airs tonight at 8pm BBC1.
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