Tragic life of Nigella Lawson

Tragic life of Nigella Lawson. Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson’s life began in affluent surroundings in London. She was the daughter of Nigel Lawson, a senior politician in Margaret Thatcher’s government, and Vanessa Lawson, who was an heiress to the Lyons Corner House food and hospitality empire.

She was a shy, intelligent child who struggled with schooling. “I was just difficult, disruptive, good at school work, but rude, I suspect, and too highly-strung,” she said.

She finally secured a place at Oxford University where she studied Medieval and Modern Languages. She became the deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times in 1986.

She was unlucky in love throughout her life. The first instance being in 1988 when her boyfriend, Geoffrey Robertson QC, left her for Aussie author of Puberty Blues, Kathy Lette.

Lette was quoted as spitefully saying: “There’s so much pressure to rush home and prepare a dinner party. My preferred recipe is to roast a domestic goddess, slowly, on a spit.”

Nigella then met John Diamond, who became her husband in 1992. The couple had two children.

In a devastating blow after her mother’s death from liver cancer at 48, Diamond was diagnosed with throat cancer. It was just five years into their marriage. Tragically, in 1993 she also lost her sister to breast cancer, and Diamond followed in 2001 after a four year battle.

Diamond was considered a major player in the career of Nigella. He encouraged his wife to write and shaped her image makeover – helping turn her into the sensuous culinary goddess she’s known as today. She released her first book in 1998, the bestseller titled How to Eat.

In 2000, Nigella’s career was at its peak. She released How to be a Domestic Goddess to mass acclaim. Diamond passed away in 2001 as she was in the middle of her next success, the filming of the cooking show Nigella Bites. She took a two-week break. “I took a fortnight off. I’m not a great believer in breaks,” she said at the time.

One of the last things Diamond said to Nigella was: “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.”

As her fame continued to rise, she became known as the chef who brought the heat to the kitchen, with her vuluptuous size-16 frame and beautiful face. Nigella was voted as one of People’s 50 Most Beautiful People in 2002.

“I love food and I love cooking so therefore I never deprive myself. Thinness is fantastic for clothes, but I don’t do fashion,” she said about her figure.

Nine months after the death of her first husband, Diamond, she controversially moved in with art collector Charles Saatchi. He had divorced his second wife two years earlier. Nigella and Saatchi married in 2003.

Saatchi was never interested in her cooking like her late husband Diamond was.

“I’m sure it’s fantastic, but a bit wasted on me. I like toast with Dairylea, followed by Weetabix for supper. It drives Nigella to distraction, frankly… But the children love her cooking, and our friends seem to look forward to it,” he said.

In what the photographer called ’27 minutes of madness’, the truth about her turmultuous relationship with Saatchi started to seep out in June this year. Saatchi was photographed grabbing Nigella’s throat at her favourite Mayfair restaurant, Scott’s.

He called it a “playful tiff” but then announced via the media he would be divorcing Nigella after ten years of marriage. He said she didn’t stand up for him after the incident and he had “clearly been a disappointment to Nigella during the last year or so”.

Nigella made no public comment after the shocking incident that made international headlines, but court documents show she was the one who actually filed for divorce. She cited unreasonable behaviour. They settled out of court.

Now, details of the volatile relationship between the couple and the infamous neck ‘throttle’ are beginning to emerge. Both Nigella and Saatchi are giving evidence at the trial of two former assistants accused of fraud. The Italian-born sisters are said to have spent more than $1.3 million, using credit cards given to them by the couple.

In court, Nigella described Saatchi as “brilliant but brutal” and admitted a history of drug use – which she attributed to hard times in her life. She denied she was a drug addict but said she had taken cocaine seven times in her life. Once with Saatchi when she felt she was the victim of “acts of intimate terrorism” due to his emotional abuse, and six times with Diamond after his cancer diagnosis.

In 2010, Nigella said of their fiery relationship: “I’ll go quiet when he explodes, and then I am a nest of horrible festeringness.”

She said contrary to reports, there had not been an argument about drug use when Saatchi grabbed her neck, but instead a customer had walked past with a baby in a stroller.

Nigella recounted: “I said ‘I’m so looking forward to having grandchildren.’

“He grabbed me by the throat and said ‘I’m the only person you should be concerned with, I am the only person that should give you pleasure,’” a court heard.

During the court proceedings, Nigella denied claims by the Italian sisters that the infamous assault was when Saatchi discovered she had authorised the women to spend the $1.3 million. It was claimed she had done so as she was scared of her husband or due to her cocaine abuse.

Nigella said she had endured a long summer of bullying and abuse at the hands of her husband, after the incident, who she said was out to “destroy” her and her credibility.

The turbulent times of the woman once dubbed “the queen of food porn”, continue to intrigue the world. Will Nigella rise from her place of despair to once again dominate the kitchen? Only time will tell.