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At one time she had a reputation as the ultimate social butterfly, rarely out of the Groucho Club when the celebrity hangout’s reputation for louche hedonism was at its peak.
For years the undisputed star of every guest list in London, Nigella Lawson appeared to revel – albeit with her characteristic coquettishness – in her role as a celebrated girl about town. The glamorous TV chef and food writer would happily pose for photographs and the pictures would fly into newspaper gossip columns.
But that era is long over for the 66-year-old, who has just returned to our screens after a long hiatus, as a judge on The Great British Bake Off. In fact, those who know Nigella say she is now unlikely to go anywhere if there is a chance she will be thrust into the limelight.
‘It’s rare you’ll see Nigella in public,’ says one associate. ‘She used to be a social butterfly but all of that has changed. She lives a very quiet life, around people who she trusts implicitly.’
Last week, a rare sighting of Nigella was a case in point.
She had enjoyed a night out with her longstanding friend Jeanette Winterson, the 67-year-old author of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit – an autobiographical novel about growing up as a lesbian. And the two women shared a hug in Chelsea, west London, close to Nigella’s home.
Sources say they had dined together nearby. Nigella was dressed in an understated navy trouser suit and trainers – quite the contrast to the brighter wardrobe she previously favoured.
Those familiar with Nigella say it was a ‘typically quiet and tame night out’.
Nigella Lawson was spotted in west London after a night out with her longstanding friend Jeanette Winterson
An onlooker added: ‘Nigella looked happy – she looked like she was enjoying herself. It was lovely to see her smiling off screen.’
The women have known each other for more than a decade.
In 2018, Jeanette wrote the introduction for the 20th anniversary edition of the Nigella Bites cookbook, praising it as a ‘practical philosophy of life and pleasure rather than a rigid instruction manual’. The previous year they had appeared together at the Manchester Literary Festival, and in 2011 Jeanette contributed to an issue of Stylist magazine which Nigella guest-edited. Jeanette also narrated the audiobook version of Nigella’s How To Eat.
But her outing with Jeanette last week showed what is now a rarely seen sociable side. Even at the launch event for Bake Off, she spared little time to mingle. While her co-stars Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding worked the room, Nigella, flanked by her publicist, left immediately after the Q&A that followed the screening.
It is not clear what has transformed Nigella into what some say is a more reclusive figure today. However, those who have known her over the years suggest that it has been influenced, at least in part, by the now-infamous events that took place outside Mayfair restaurant Scott’s in 2013.
Photographs emerged of Nigella’s now ex-husband, the art dealer Charles Saatchi, gripping her around the throat several times as they argued over lunch. She appeared distressed and tearful.
I remember how shocking those pictures were, and the moment I first saw them when they were sold to the Sunday newspaper where I worked at the time.
The pair, seen hugging at the end of their night out, have known each other for more than a decade
Nigella recently returned to screens on the Great British Bake Off where she joined Paul Hollywood as a judge
It was immediately clear that they would make headlines around the world.
It was a seismic moment for Nigella, who had married Saatchi a decade previously following the 2001 death of her first husband John Diamond, the journalist and father of her two children.
Saatchi said the incident was a ‘playful tiff’, but he accepted a police caution for assault, and the couple announced the following month they were divorcing.
‘She was terrified,’ says a source. ‘But for the whole world to see her like that was just devastating. Nigella was sociable and coquettish – not just on-screen but off it, too – but then Charles happened, the incident happened, and it all changed for her. It scarred her.’
More scandal was to come during the fraud trial of two sisters, Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo, who worked as personal assistants for Nigella and Saatchi and had been accused of using company credit cards to buy £685,000 worth of luxury goods.
The siblings claimed that Nigella had allowed the spending to cover up her cocaine use. Nigella told the court she had used drugs to mask her unhappiness – making ‘an intolerable situation tolerable’ – but denied being an addict or having a drug problem.
The sisters were subsequently found not guilty.
But the fallout from the case helped prompt a withdrawal from the London party scene where Nigella had once been such a prominent fixture, and marked the beginning of a virtual absence from British television. Despite becoming one of the nation’s most sought-after TV chefs thanks to hits such as How To Eat and How To Be A Domestic Goddess, she spent much of her life abroad in the wake of her divorce.
She became a judge on cooking shows in the US and Australia, before her 2020 Cook, Eat, Repeat on BBC Two. Bake Off marks her first regular slot on British TV since then – although she admitted she had a ‘long list of reasons’ to turn it down, including the fact that she does not consider herself a ‘technical baker’.
But just two episodes in, and she has proved a huge hit with fans. Alison has described her as ‘an icon’, and she has won praise for arguing against Paul Hollywood for calling food ‘naughty’ and for eating large chunks of cake.
Just don’t expect her to be back on the party circuit any time soon.
Friends suggest ‘she needed some time away from fame’ to ‘mend herself’, with one friend saying the Saatchi incident ‘broke her – living a quiet life is how Nigella likes it now’.
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