Charles Saatchi still ‘absolutely adores’ ex-wife Nigella Lawson, was ‘very upset’ over claims she took cocaine and denies ‘gripping, strangling or throttling’ her outside a restaurant, he told a court yesterday.
Instead, in the infamous incident captured on camera - which led to the couple’s divorce - he claimed he was simply ‘holding her head, by the neck, to get her to focus’.
Lawson, he revealed, was unhappy in their marriage because she felt she needed to ask him for a ‘pass’ to do what she wanted. Art collector Saatchi made the painful admission in a packed courtroom hearing a fraud case - which has so far been dominated by his accusations of cocaine addiction against Lawson.
But yesterday, in front of a spellbound audience - made up of jurors, 40 journalists, and large legal teams - the £100 million (Dh600 million) former ad man admitted the worst of his drug accusations had been sent in a ‘nasty email’ as he tussled with grief over the end of their ten-year marriage.
It was that October email which led to a court ruling that the world should hear allegations that Lawson had been taking cocaine daily for more than a decade - as well as smoking cannabis and ‘poisoning’ her daughter Cosima ‘Mimi’ Diamond, 19, with drugs.
Saatchi was giving evidence at Isleworth Crown Court as Italian sisters Lisa and Francesca Grillo, former nannies and maids for the 70-year-old and Lawson, are accused of stealing almost £700,000 from their bosses.
Yesterday Saatchi admitted that when he first learned of the Grillos’ alleged frauds he just thought they were ‘naughty girls’ who could be forgiven and kept on as employees.
He showed more feeling when questioned about his marriage by Lisa Grillo’s barrister Anthony Metzer QC, who has suggested Saatchi only wanted the trial to go ahead so he could smear his wife as a cocaine addict.
Speaking in a quiet voice, Saatchi said: “I am utterly heartbroken to have lost Nigella, and I wish the last year had never happened. So if you think this process is giving me any pleasure - you’re mistaken. I hate it.
“I adore Nigella now. I absolutely adore Nigella and I’m broken-hearted to have lost her.”
Saatchi also seized the chance to give his account of the photographs taken outside Scott’s restaurant in Mayfair in June, which appeared to show him throttling Lawson.
When they were published a week later he tried to dismiss the incident as a ‘playful tiff’, but then accepted a police caution for assault. Lawson divorced him weeks later.
Saatchi said: “I was not gripping, strangling or throttling her. I was holding her head by the neck to make her focus. I wanted her to focus on what we were speaking about.” Probed on what they were discussing Saatchi butted in: “Her drug use? No.”
But the jury was talked through extensive allegations originating from Saatchi in which he endorsed statements by the Grillo sisters, accusing Lawson of daily cocaine snorting, heavy cannabis smoking and prescription drug abuse.
After the TV chef last month threatened to withdraw her evidence from the Grillos’ trial, Saatchi’s lawyers sent his ex-wife a letter. It made reference to inquiries the multi-millionaire made with his daughter Phoebe, 19, and other staff members, which he said supported the drug allegations against his wife.
The letter noted: “Over the last ten years the defendants have witnessed persistent drug abuse by Ms Lawson and Mimi, which escalated over the last five years.
They had reason to believe Miss Lawson took cocaine on a daily basis, and was a regular user of cannabis and several prescription drugs.”
It added that Saatchi had ‘no reason to disbelieve the statements’.
The art collector was also interrogated over the email he had sent his former wife, accusing her and Mimi of being ‘so off their heads’ on drugs they let the Grillos blow a fortune on designer clothes, flights, and hotels.
But he said yesterday: “I was just being nasty. This is not a very pleasant email but I was very, very upset.”
Asked if he truly believed she was so ‘drug addled’ she did not know what she was doing, he told the court: “Not for a second. Over this whole period she was writing books very successfully and appearing on television shows very successfully.”
Revealing an apparent reason for his wife’s marital unhappiness, Saatchi said: “In one of the very rare conversations I’ve had with Nigella since we split, I asked her whether she was happy. And she said she was happy. And I said ‘What was this all about?’
“She said ‘I’m happy because I don’t feel I have to ask for a pass to do what I feel like doing’. And I said to her ‘You never had to ask for a pass, you could do whatever you liked’.”
He claimed he was furious the angry email had become public after Lawson passed it to her lawyers, they handed it to the CPS, and it then became a public court document. He also rubbished a claim from Francesca Grillo that by asking the sisters to pay back the money they were ‘being treated worse than Filipino slaves’. Saatchi said the suggestion was ‘nonsense’.
The defendants, both of Bayswater, west London, deny the charge against them.
It is alleged they abused their positions as PAs by using a company credit card for personal gain.
Lawson is expected to give evidence in the trial next Wednesday. The case continues.
