Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson insisted she would never risk “leaving my children orphans’’ by getting hooked on drugs, as she testified Thursday that she had come clean about her cocaine and marijuana use because she wanted avoid being “bullied by lies” from her ex-husband, Charles Saatchi.
In emotional testimony in a London courtroom, the Food Network star denied her drug use was a “dark, guilty secret’’ in her marriage, as she was cross-examined by defense lawyers in the fraud trial of two former personal assistants accused of bilking $1 million from the now-divorced couple.
“I promise you, if I took the drugs to the extent you say, I would not be standing here today,’’ Lawson, who also appears on ABC’s “The Taste,’’ snapped at a defense lawyer. “You know as well as I do that regular cocaine users don’t look like this; they’re scrawny.
“If you think I’m going to sabotage my health and run the risk of leaving my children orphans, you are very wrong.
“I’m not proud of the fact I have taken drugs, but that does not make me a drug addict or a habitual drug user,” she said.
Still, tales of the British chef’s drug use have overshadowed the trial. She testified this week that she’d done cocaine seven times and had also smoked pot on occasion.
Lawson, 53, dumped the advertising and art tycoon Saatchi over the summer after he was photographed with his hands around her throat at a trendy eatery in London’s West End.
On Thursday, she reiterated her claims that Saatchi, 70, was a control freak who tried to explain away the damning photo by claiming he was checking Lawson’s nose for cocaine.
“The fact is, I would rather be honest and ashamed. I wasn’t going to be bullied with lies,” she testified. “Mr. Saatchi was not examining me for cocaine. That’s a story he made up afterwards to clear his name.”
Lawson also denied she kept a stash of cocaine in a box alongside the wedding ring of her late husband, John Diamond.
And she shot down claims that drug dealers frequented her home, telling the court she “never knowingly” met a drug dealer and never paid for drugs.
Defense lawyer Karina Arden’s attacks on Lawson drew the ire of Judge Robin Johnson, who hit the roof when she asked, “Do you agree that you received a Mother’s Day card in 2011 or 2012 with a spliff [a joint] taped to the card saying, ‘To enjoy later’?”
Ordering Lawson not to answer, he barked at Arden: “That ends your cross-examination. I’m not having any more. You have exhausted my patience.’’
Earlier Thursday, Lawson denied telling the two aides they could “spend, spend, spend” on a corporate credit card and called the two women “greedy and disgusting.”
As for one aide’s claims that Lawson told her to treat herself to $8,500 in designer duds, the TV cook snarked: “Why on earth would I do that? There are cars that cost that much money!’’
Lawson’s testimony also offered a glimpse into her life with Saatchi — including her claim that he kept an entire room just for silverware but allowed his famous chef wife to have dinner parties only “once or twice a year.”
“I was not happy about that,’’ she said.