Nigella Lawson Lashes Out At Acquittal Of Former Assistants

Domestic goddess Nigella Lawson is lashing out at today's not guilty verdict of her two former assistants.

In a just-released statement, Nigella says she was "maliciously vilified" and the trial was "deliberately designed to destroy my reputation."

Sordid details from the celebrity TV chef's personal life were exposed during the trial outside London, including her stunning admission on the stand that she used cocaine a total of seven times.  

"I am disappointed but unsurprised by this verdict," she says in her statement. "Over the three-week trial the jury was faced with a ridiculous sideshow of false allegations about drug use which made focus on the actual criminal trial impossible."

Nigella accused the two sisters who were once her personal assistants of charging without authorization over $1 million in luxury vacations and expensive clothes on credit cards belonging to her and her ex-husband, billionaire advertising mogul Charles Saatchi.

After today's not guilty verdict, Scotland Yard says it will not investigate Lawson's cocaine use unless new information comes to light.

Lawson will appear as scheduled as a judge on ABC's The Taste, beginning January 2.