Saatchi accepts assault caution for Nigella ‘tiff’
The 70-year-old spoke out for a second time following the confrontation with his TV cook spouse, which he has dismissed as “a playful tiff”.
Pictures published in the Sunday People showed him grasping her neck as they sat at a table at a central London restaurant.
He told the London Evening Standard: “Although Nigella made no complaint, I volunteered to go to Charing Cross station and take a police caution after a discussion with my lawyer because I thought it was better than the alternative of this hanging over all of us for months.”
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “Officers from the community safety unit at Westminster were aware of the Sunday People article which was published on Sunday, Jun 16, and carried out an investigation.
TV chef Nigella Lawson grabbed by throat in astonishing bust-up with husband Charles Saatchi. Our shocking pictures pic.twitter.com/ims40wZq0h
— The Sunday People (@thesundaypeople) June 15, 2013
“This afternoon, Monday, Jun 17, a 70-year-old man voluntarily attended a central London police station and accepted a caution for assault.”
Saatchi, a former advertising executive, said he was holding Lawson by the neck “to emphasise my point” as they discussed their children. But he admitted the shots, in which his wife appears to be grimacing as he holds her outside Scott’s in Mayfair, looked “horrific”.
He told the Evening Standard: “About a week ago, we were sitting outside a restaurant having an intense debate about the children, and I held Nigella’s neck repeatedly while attempting to emphasise my point.
“There was no grip, it was a playful tiff. The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place. Nigella’s tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt.
“We had made up by the time we were home. The paparazzi were congregated outside our house after the story broke yesterday morning, so I told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled.”
A spokesman for Lawson confirmed she left the family home with her son on Sunday, but refused to say whether it was a temporary or permanent move.
