Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson’s personal assistants were routinely sent on lavish shopping trips by her millionaire hubby – and once shelled out about $80,000 on designer duds during a single spree, according to court testimony Wednesday.
The assistants – including sisters Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo, who are on trial for allegedly swindling more than $1 million from Lawson’s millionaire hubby Charles Saatchi – told defense lawyers they had permission to use his credit cards.
During testimony in a London courtroom, another assistant, Zoe Wales, said she bought $80,000 worth of clothes from designer Donna Karan for the Food Network star at Saatchi’s request.
Testimony also suggested that Lawson – who admitted to snorting coke and smoking pot while on the stand last week – had cut a deal to appear on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show to try to repair her image.
But yet another assistant, Anzelle Wasserman, later denied that claim.
The Grillos – Italian sisters who worked for years as trusted assistants for Lawson and Saatchi – allegedly used Saatchi’s credit cards and cash to splurge on designer clothes and lavish international vacations for themselves.
Jurors also heard testimony that Saatchi once instructed Wales to spend more than $2,200 on two bottles of wine from a high-end UK merchant.
The Grillos have denied a single count of fraud lodged against them.
Last week, Lawson testified she was not proud of snorting cocaine and smoking pot, but confessed to void being “bullied by lies” from Saatchi, an art collector.
The drug allegations against the celebrity chef and cookbook author surfaced about the same time Saatchi was photographed with his hand gripping Lawson’s throat in June at the posh restaurant Scott’s in London’s West End.
Saatchi got a police warning for assault, and the couple announced they would divorce soon afterward.
The British chef, a judge on ABC’s cooking competition “The Taste,” copped to using cocaine seven times and marijuana on other occasions to get her through tough times.
But she denied she was an addict.
“I have never been a drug addict. I’ve never been a habitual user,” said Lawson, who also hosts the cable shows “Nigella’s Kitchen,” “Nigella Bites” and “Nigellissima.”