Nigella and I just having a playful tiff, says Saatchi

Photographs which appear to show Charles Saatchi grabbing his wife Nigella Lawson’s throat were the result of a “playful tiff”, he said.

The millionaire art collector said he was holding the broadcaster and cook by the neck “to emphasise my point” as they discussed family, he told London’s Evening Standard newspaper.

The police are looking into the pictures — which Saatchi admitted looked “horrific” — taken outside a London restaurant last week and which have been widely published.