Husband chokes celebrity chef Nigella Lawson in London restaurant row
'Inquiries in hand' after Charles Saatchi shocks diners by throttling Nigella Lawson over lunch
British police are probing a violent public domestic row between kitchen diva Nigella Lawson and multimillionaire husband Charles Saatchi, who allegedly tried to choke her as they ate Sunday lunch.
Photos published by a British Sunday newspaper show art collector Saatchi grabbing his wife by the neck up to four times and trying to throttle her at their favourite Mayfair restaurant.
I have no doubt she was scared. It was horrific, really. She was very tearful
The 53-year-old Lawson - dubbed the "Domestic Goddess" - gulped her glass of red wine empty and then tried to pacify her husband during the row. She placed her hand across the table and kissed him on the cheek.
But the 70-year-old Saatchi appeared to be in no mood for reconciliation and is pictured "tweaking" - or pinching - her nose as the socialite couple sat opposite each other and with their fellow diners agog.
Saatchi, according to several witnesses in the packed seafood eatery Scott's, impatiently tapped a cigarette on the table as his wife wept and dabbed tears from her eyes with a serviette.
He then walked out of the restaurant and his distraught wife followed soon after. The couple then left in the same car, according to Sunday People, which published a series of photos.