Nigella Lawson confessed in court on Wednesday that she has used cocaine twice her in life during testimony in the fraud trial in London.
Lawson was called to testify in the fraud case against Italian sisters Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo, who had been employed as personal assistants of the celebrity chef and her former husband Charles Saatchi. At an earlier part in the trial, the Grillos' defense team provided an email in which Saatchi suggested that Lawson made a habit of using cocaine and marijuana.
Saatchi’s email reportedly claimed that Lawson wouldn’t have known if Francesca and Elisabetha Grillo were embezzling money from them due to Lawson’s alleged dependence on drugs. While Saatchi has walked back his comments in the email, Lawson's presence in court was requested to clear the air on the matter.
When she took the stand on Wednesday, Lawson admitted that she’d used cocaine twice in the past, reported CNN. The first time she used heroin was with her late husband John Diamond as a means of trying to “escape” during his battle with cancer. Lawson claims to have used it once more in July 2010 when a friend offered it to her during a particularly troubling time in her marriage to Saatchi.
"I've never been a drug addict, I've never been an habitual user,” Lawson said in court. “I did not have a drug problem, I had a life problem."
"I have been put on trial here where I am called to answer, and glad to answer the allegations, and the world's press, and it comes after a long summer of bullying and abuse," Lawson continued. "I find it's another chapter in that."
Lawson also claimed in her testimony that Saatchi essentially blackmailed her in his efforts to get her to participate in the trial. She said, "He had said to me if I didn't get back to him and clear his name he would destroy me."
Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo have maintained that they are not guilty of embezzling hundreds of thousands of pounds on credit cards belonging to Lawson and Saatchi. Saatchi believes that the sisters spent upwards of $1 million on luxury items for personal use on the cards, which were meant to be used on purchases on items for their home.
– Chelsea Regan
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