Celebrity Chef Nigella Lawson dropped a bombshell revelation in court as she admitted to using cocaine. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
Domestic goddess Nigella Lawson admitted to doing cocaine. The celebrity TV chef said she used cocaine seven times, but she does not have a drug problem. She said it started when her first husband learned he had terminal throat cancer.
Sky News reporter Ian Woods was in the packed courtroom on Wednesday.
In an interview with INSIDE EDITION, Woods said, "It was when he was terminally ill with cancer that he began to use cocaine, and she said there were half a dozen occasions when she took it as well. The second time she used cocaine she said, was in July of 2010. She was just unhappy and a friend offered her cocaine, so she did it."
Lawson, who held her head high as she strode into a London court, made the bombshell admissions after her second husband, billionaire advertising mogul Charles Saatchi, testified that "Nigella had a severe cocaine habit that stretched back a very long time."
He also sent her an email that made headlines, calling her "Higella."
On the stand, Lawson said that her ex is "dedicated to salvaging his own reputation while destroying mine" after those photos went viral of Saatchi appearing to choke her. Lawson also said "I have been put on trial here. It comes after a long summer of bullying and abuse."
Lawson, dressed all in black except for the white collar of her blouse, was testifying at the fraud trial of her former assistants—sisters who are accused of spending one million dollars of the couple's money on lavish spending sprees.
Their defense was that Lawson had a daily cocaine, marijuana, and prescription drug habit for more than 10 years. According to the sisters, Lawson would let them spend as long as they kept her dark secret.
Lawson's $30 million empire includes bestselling cookbooks and TV shows around the world, including the ABC cooking competition, The Taste.
INSIDE EDITION asked Reputation.com's Howard Bragman how Lawson's admitted drug use will affect her career.
He said, "The real question is how much did she use? Are we going to believe it's something she only did a few times, or are we going to believe what the accusation's have been—that it was something that's been much more habitual? If it was more habitual, then its a tough hurdle to overcome."
A broken marriage, and bombshell admissions, playing out for all the world to see.
