Metro Herald, December 5, 2013

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Thursday, December 5, 2013

Bringing Sleeping Beauty to life

Claire Tighe »p6

TV chef took drugs to cope with break-up from ‘brutal’ Saatchi

nigella: i did use cocaine NIGELLA Lawson yesterday admitted taking cocaine and cannabis but furiously denied she was an addict. The TV chef told a court she turned to drugs to help her cope with the bitter breakdown of her marriage to multi-millionaire Charles Saatchi – a ‘brutal man’ she accused of ‘intimate terrorism’. She said she also used cocaine six times with first husband John Diamond, who died of cancer in 2001. But she rejected as ‘completely false’ claims that she left stashes of cocaine hidden above her toilet seat, rolled-up bank notes and ‘credit cards with white powder lying around’ the house she shared with him. Instead, she declared from the witness box: ‘I do not have a drugs problem – I have a life problem.’ Lawson, 53, was giving evidence at the trial of her personal assistants, sisters Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo, who deny defrauding the

Under pressure: Nigella Lawson leaves court where she admitted using cocaine and cannabis PICTURE: PA

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couple of almost €850,000. In an email, Mr Saatchi, 70, had claimed they would get away with their alleged crime because she was ‘off her head’ on drugs and did not notice the money going missing. Lawson admitted accepting cocaine from a friend in July 2010 when she was ‘having a very, very difficult time’ and ‘felt subjected to intimate terrorism by Mr Saatchi’. She accused Mr Saatchi of threatening to ‘destroy her’ with false drug allegations. And she spoke for the first time about the moment the millionaire grabbed her by the throat while dining at a restaurant in central London last June. She claimed she had been discussing her desire for grandchildren when Mr Saatchi lashed out, saying: ‘I’m the only person who should be giving you pleasure.’

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Metro Herald, December 5, 2013 by Metro Herald - Issuu