Everything To Know About Food Writer Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lucy Lawson was born in Wandsworth, London on 6 January 1960. She is a daughter of Nigel Lord Lawson of Blaby, a former Conservative MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer in Margaret Thatcher’s government, and his first wife Vanessa Salmon, a celebrated beauty and the heiress to the J.Lyons and Co. fortun

In 1980, her parents got divorced. At the age of 48, Her mother died in Westminster, London due to cancer. Dominic, her brother, and the last Thomasina (who died of breast cancer) and Horatia are her biological sisters. She has two half-siblings from her father’s second marriage Tom (half-brother) and Emily (half-sister).

She was a very diligent student but in between 9 to 18 years old, Lawson moved school nine times due to which she experienced difficulty in schooling. She got her Master’s degree from Oxford in Medieval and Modern Language.

As her first job, she worked in publishing under publisher Naim Attallah and when Charles Moore invited her to write for The Spectator, she started her career in journalism at 23. She worked as a restaurant critic and wrote book reviews. In 1986 at 26 age, she became the deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times.

In 2000, ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’which was primarily focused on baking was published and within four months, 180,000 copies were sold and The Observer invited her to be their social affairs columnist. She organized the preparations and menu for a lunch Tony Blair hosted for Geroge W. Bush and his wife in November 2003 at Downing Street during their state visit to the UK.

£3 Million sales were made by her fifth book Feast: Food that Celebrated Life, released in 2004. In the same year, she often appeared on several talk shows for conducting cooker slots.

‘Nigella Feasts’ her third food-related television program, had its premiere on the US food Network in 2006 and aired for 13 weeks. In 2006, a three-part weekly cooking program called “Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen” was broadcasted. The highest second rating of the week was secured by the first two episodes for BBC Two.  A total of 3.5 million people watched the first episode and the last episode went on to become the most popular and top show on BBC Two.

In 2007, a second World Food Media was won by Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen. in 2010, she appeared as one of the three judges for “The Super Chef Battle”,  a special Iron Chef America challenge that pitted Cristeta Comerford Bobby Flay against Emeril Lagasse and Mario Batali.

‘Nigellissima: Instant Italian Inspiration,’ her 2012 book, was warmly welcomed in both the US and Italy. The BBC aired “Nigellissima,” an 8-part television series. In 2013, she traveled to America when she appeared on the reality cooking show The Taste with Anthony Bourdain. In January 2014 on Channel 4, a UK version of the show began to air.

Lawson stated Simply Nigella in autumn 2015 for BBC 2 which mainly focuses on comfort food and quick-to-cook simple and familiar dishes. In 2016, on January 18, as a guest judge, she joined the eighth series of Master Chef Australia. She returned to show for the tenth and eleventh series in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Awards

When Lawson was writing for The Sunday Times, she met journalist John Diamond in 1986. They were married in Venice in 1992, and they had two children: Cosima and Bruno. Diamond, who has a throat cancer diagnosis in 1997, passed away in 2001 at the age of 47.

“How proud I am of you and what you have become. The great thing about us is that we have made us who we are” was his last message to his wife, Lawson. After Diamond’s death, Lawson suffered from depression. 

She married Charles Saatchi, an art collector in September 2003. The Sunday People published the photograph of Saatchi grabbing his wife Lawson’s neck in June 2013. Saatchi was cautioned for assault and Lawson moved out of the family home after police investigated the incident.

Lawson testified in court that Saatchi threatened to ruin her unless she exonerated him of all charges and that he subjected her to “intimate terrorism.”  Saatchi’s controlling behavior and casual cruelty made her unhappy and was using drugs occasionally.

Lawson filed for divorce, alleging his continued unreasonable behavior. In July 2013, the couple received a judgment nisi, terminating their ten-year union.

Lawson’s net worth seems to be between $15 million to $20 million as her exact net worth is not mentioned anywhere on any credible sites. 

She has listed as one of the most popular Journalists as well as the richest Journalist. Writing and broadcasting are some of the main sources of her income.