TV chef Nigella Lawson attacks ‘sideshow’ of drug claims
Cook whose cocaine use was revealed in trial says she is disappointed by acquittal of former assistants Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo on fraud charges
Nigella Lawson has attacked the “ridiculous sideshow of false allegations about drug use” levelled against her in the trial of her former assistants Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo, who have been found not guilty of a £685,000 fraud on household accounts.
Lawson, 53, issued a statement saying she was “disappointed but unsurprised” at the verdicts in a case in which she was a key prosecution witness alongside her ex-husband, the art dealer Charles Saatchi, for whom the Grillos also worked before the couple divorced in acrimony this summer.
In a strongly worded statement, Lawson complained that the claims of her habitual use of cocaine and cannabis made by the Grillos “made focus on the actual criminal trial impossible”.
“My experience as a witness was deeply disturbing,” the TV chef said in a statement issued through her publicist. “When false claims about habitual drug use were introduced I did everything possible to ensure the Crown Prosecution Service was aware of the sustained background campaign deliberately designed to destroy my reputation.”
Lawson said in court that her former husband had threatened to “destroy” her if she did not give evidence in the case.
The court heard he told her in an email calling her “Higella” that he believed the Grillos’ claims that she was “off her head on drugs”.
