14 DAY TRIAL // Nigella Lawson is, according to her ex-husband Charles Saatchi, a drug addict who used to offer her personal assistants access to her accounts so they would keep her habit a secret from him. The shocking revelations were made in court yesterday, as the two PAs stood trial on allegations of fraud.
Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo are accused of fraud after stealing money from their former employer, Nigella. Oddly enough, the Daily Mail reports, it’s the chef’s own former husband that’s standing up for them, claiming they only stole because she allowed them to, not wanting to run the risk of being discovered as a drug addict.
Even worse, Saatchi says, Nigella also gave drugs to her 19-year-old daughter Cosima, also known as Mimi. Lawsone was described in court as a “habitual abuser of cocaine as well as class B and prescription drugs,” says the tab.
“[I am] concerned that Miss Lawson gave the defendants permission to use the accounts for personal purposes whilst under the influence of drugs and/or that Miss Lawson has no credible recollection of events as a result of drug abuse,” Saatchi said in a letter read in court.
Attorneys also read an email he sent to Nigella, in which he accuses her of allowing the Grillos to spend roughly £300,000 ($489,540 / €359,982) on clothes, trips and other luxury treats, just so they wouldn’t inform him of what she was doing to herself and her daughter.
“Of course now the Grillos sisters will get off on the basis that you (and) Mimi were so off your heads on drugs that you allowed the sisters to spend whatever they liked. And yes, I believe every word they have said,” Saatchi wrote in the email.
Lawson’s attorney or her publicist were not immediately available for comment at the time this came out in the press. However, considering that these are very serious allegations, she will probably be releasing a statement soon to set the record straight.
Nigella and Charles’ marriage imploded over the summer, when he was photographed apparently choking her at the dinner table in the restaurant, during what was supposed to be a heated argument. He claimed the whole scene was a “playful tiff” and hinted that Nigella was far from the perfect woman she appeared to be.
He could have been talking about this alleged drug use.