Art collector Charles Saatchi said this weekend that he is going to get a divorce from his celebrity chef wife, Nigella Lawson, a month after pictures that appeared to show him trying to choke her were published. Saatchi said that he is disappointed that she never came to his defense in public.
“I am sorry to announce that Nigella Lawson and I are getting divorced,” the 70-year-old Saatchi told The Mail on Sunday. “I feel that I have clearly been a disappointment to Nigella during the last year or so, and I am disappointed that she was advised to make no public comment to explain that I abhor violence of any kind against women, and have never abused her physically in any way.”
Saatchi and Lawson’s relationship came under scrutiny last month when the Mirror and other British tabloids published a series of photos showing what looked like the two embroiled in an argument at a restaurant. Saatchi was shown grabbing the 53-year-old Lawson’s throat and pinching her nose. He was later questioned by police and told the Evening Standard that it was a “playful tiff” and that she hadn’t been hurt.
Lawson then reportedly moved out, but during all the media coverage, she never said anything herself. According to the Associated Press, her rep did confirm that she and her children did leave their home.
The couple married in 2003. Lawson has a son and daughter from her marriage to John Diamond, who died in 2001. Saatchi also has a daughter from a previous marriage.
image: ABC