Famed food writer and TV chef Nigella Lawson isn’t just into pots and pans — she’s also into pot and coke, according to blockbuster evidence made public by a British judge Tuesday.
The self-proclaimed “domestic goddess” secretly used so many drugs that her millionaire art-dealer ex-hubby, Charles Saatchi, derisively dubbed her “Higella” after finding out — and may have notoriously choked her in public because of it, published reports said.
Lawson, 53, allegedly used cocaine, marijuana and illegal prescription pills “daily” for more than a decade behind Saatchi’s back.
The best-selling cookbook author and co-star of ABC’s competitive-cooking show “The Taste” even got wasted with her teenage daughter, according to the reports.
The explosive allegations had been kept under wraps since a Nov. 15 pretrial hearing for two ex-assistants charged with defrauding her and Saatchi, 70, of about $500,000.
But Judge Robin Johnson lifted the gag order after ruling that “bad character” evidence against Lawson could be used to buttress defense claims that she let the defendants, sisters Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo, spend lavishly with a corporate credit card if they kept quiet about her “guilty secret.”
Lawson reportedly referred to the Grillos as “my kitchen confidantes” in one of her books.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Johnson read from an explosive, Oct. 10 e-mail in which Saatchi referred to Lawson as “Higella” and accused her of “poisoning” her daughter, Cosima, 19.
The couple divorced in July, shortly after Saatchi was photographed grabbing Lawson by the neck.
“It is our submission the row that what happened, resulting in Mr. Saatchi assaulting Nigella, may well have had something to do with Nigella taking drugs and may well have had something to do with the issue before this court,” defense lawyer Anthony Metzer argued Tuesday.
Lawson’s rep declined to comment.