Nigella Lawson is holed up in her apartment in tears after learning from a newspaper that her husband, Charles Saatchi, was divorcing her.
The Sun reports that the TV chef had no idea Saatchi had filed for a divorce until he issued a statement to the Mail on Sunday announcing it.
Lawson had moved out of the couple’s London home after another UK paper, The sunday People, published photos of Saatchi grabbing her by the throat at a restaurant.
However, her friends reportedly told The Sun that she wanted to give their 10-year marriage another go, and that she planned to reconcile after she returned from a upcoming trip to the US.
One told the paper: “Poor Nigella is beside herself. She had no idea that Charles was going to file for divorce.
“She has been trying to call him to talk about what is going on, but she cannot get through. She keeps saying, ‘How can you file for divorce without even talking about it'”
Saatchi, 70, who has been publicly vilified as wife beater, cited Lawson’s lack of public support for him after the choking photos were published last month.
The art dealer accepted a police caution over the incident but he later tried to downplay it, saying it was just a “playful tiff” and that he had only accepted the caution to put an end to the affair.
His statement to the Mail on Sunday has been widely criticised as callous and self-serving.
“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…
“The row photographed at Scott’s Restaurant could equally have been Nigella grasping my neck to hold my attention – as indeed she has done in the past.”
Saatchi’s friends reportedly told The Sun that Lawson had allowed herself to be manipulated by her PR adviser.
“He [Saatchi] feels his reputation has been dragged through the mud without her lifting one finger to help him.”
However, one of Lawson’s friends told the paper that Saatchi had grown bitter over the past year and resented Lawson’s career. “He felt that Nigella needed to be more supportive of him and his career.”
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