Storm over Nigella 'I'd wear bear' comment

TV chef Nigella Lawson angered anti-fur campaigners after saying she would happily kill a bear and wear its skin as a trophy.

The presenter told the BBC that buying a fur coat would be an “act of weakness” but that she would be “proud” to wear the pelt of a bear she had killed.

Speaking on 'The One Show' last night, Miss Lawson said: “I feel going into a shop and buying a fur coat would be an act of weakness.

“But if I could go out into the woods and kill a bear myself, I would then wear it proudly as a trophy.”

Interviewer Adrian Chiles said: “You’re a nice lady who makes chocolate puddings, why would you want to go out killing bears for something to wear?”

The 48-year-old, whose show Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen starts next week, replied: “If you’re in nature and it’s either you or the bear goes...”

Asked once again if she would kill an animal to wear fur, the chef said: “I might if I lived in Alaska.”

Her comments were made during a discussion about celebrities who wear fur and sparked angry condemnation from anti-fur groups.

A spokesman for Respect for Animals said: “If she could see the way in which bears and other wild animals are killed in the wild she wouldn’t have been so flippant and glib. In my view, Nigella has blood on her hands.”

And a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) added: “Every year millions of animals are electrocuted and skinned alive, suffering terribly for the production of fur.”

Miss Lawson’s spokesman said her comments had been taken out of context.

“Nigella does not condone gratuitous cruelty to animals. She does not wear fur herself,” he told the Daily Mail.