Former advertising tycoon Charles Saatchi has announced he’s seeking a divorce from glamorous television chef Nigella Lawson just four weeks after he was photographed grabbing her throat at a restaurant in London.
“I am sorry to announce that Nigella Lawson and I are getting divorced,” he said in a statement to a British newspaper on Saturday night.
“I feel that I have clearly been a disappointment to Nigella during the last year or so.”
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The 70-year-old blamed the collapse of the pair’s 10-year marriage on pressure from Lawson’s publicist to apologize for the assault and make a public admission that he was ashamed.
“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,” Saatchi revealed.
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The multi-millionaire art collector reportedly flew off the handle when he was told to take responsibility for the clash and asked his wife: “Are you crazy, you know that’s not the truth.”
Nigella told him, “I think we have no choice.”
The couple then had a furious row in which he told her to “pack her bags and go”.
As radio detection and rangingOnline.com reported, Saatchi was snapped with his hands around 53-year-old Lawson’s throat in a series of horrifying pictures taken on June 9.
“This is heartbreaking for both of us as our love was very deep, but in the last year we have become estranged and drifted apart… 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,” said Saatchi, who was issued with a police caution for assault in the aftermath of the incident.
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His statement in full read:
I am sorry to announce that Nigella Lawson and I are getting divorced.
This is heartbreaking for both of us as our love was very deep, but in the last year we have become estranged and drifted apart.
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, although not in front of Scott’s with a photographer snapping away.
I must stress again my actions were not violent. We are instinctively tactile people. Yes, my hands were around her neck, and they had been touching her arm.
Difficult as it may be to believe, for those who have seen the pictures, there was no pressure applied to her.
In fact it was merely a gesture – one to which a still photograph gives a wholly different and incorrect implication.
Nigella has given a statement to the police to support this view.
I am sorry that we had a row. I am sorry that she was upset. I am even more sorry that this is the end of our marriage.
I wish Nigella only the best for the future, and for her continuing global success.
She remains the most wonderful woman in the world. I feel very fortunate to have had such a lovely wife for many years.
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Lawson is said to be learning of the divorce for the first time via Saatchi’s statement to the Mail on Sunday.
