Charles Saatchi, the art collector husband of celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, has been cautioned by police after photos that appeared to show him choking her were published in the British press. He later accepted the ‘police caution’ and was questioned by police.
According to The Guardian, Saatchi, a multimillionaire and columnist for the London Evening Standard, came under scrutiny after Sunday People published photos that showing him with his hand around Lawson’s neck at a restaurant in Mayfair. One photo shows him moving his other hand toward her throat and in another, he pinches her nose. She was upset and in tears when she left the restaurant. You can see a gallery of the photos at The Mirror.
Saatchi was called out on domestic abuse, but he told the Evening Standard on Monday that it was just a “playful tiff,” explaining, “There was no grip, it was a playful tiff. The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place. Nigella's tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt.”
Police began investigating the incident and later Saatchi accepted the police caution, voluntarily coming in for an interrogation, reports the Mirror. “This afternoon a 70-year-old man voluntarily attended a Central London police station and accepted a caution for assault,” a Metropolitan police spokesman confirmed.
He spoke with the Evening Standard on Tuesday, saying that it was better than the alternative.
“Although Nigella made no complaint I volunteered to go to Charing Cross station and take a police caution after a discussion with my lawyer because I thought it was better than the alternative of this hanging over all of us for months,” Saatchi said.
According to the AP, Lawson and Saatchi married in 2003. Lawson has a daughter and son from her marriage to the late journalist John Diamond. Saatchi, who devised an ad campaign that helped Margaret Thatcher became prime minister, has a daughter from a previous marriage. Lawson is a successful chef in both the US and UK, with books and TV shows on her resume.
image: Wikimedia Commons
