UPDATE, 1:30p.m. — In a statement to the UK’s Standard newspaper, where Charles Saatchi is a columnist, he claimed the couple was having a “playful tiff” and said he was only holding onto her neck to emphasize a point (as you do?):
“About a week ago, we were sitting outside a restaurant having an intense debate about the children, and I held Nigella’s neck repeatedly while attempting to emphasise my point. There was no grip, it was a playful tiff. The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place. Nigella’s tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt. We had made up by the time we were home. The paparazzi were congregated outside our house after the story broke yesterday morning, so I told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled.”
Nigella Lawson still has not made a public statement regarding the incident. [Standard UK]
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Domestic violence happens in every income bracket. Nowhere is that more visually apparent than in the disturbing photographs taken of celebrity chef Nigella Lawson being choked in a London restaurant by her husband, Charles Saatchi, on June 9.
The pictures — taken at the Mayfair restaurant, Scott’s — show the couple seated together at a table, apparently arguing, as Saatchi has his hands gripped around Lawson’s throat. She was also photographed leaving the restaurant crying. Keep reading »
