Charles Saatchi Admits To Assaulting Nigella Lawson

The husband of celebrity chef and author Nigella Lawson has accepted a police citation and admitted that he assaulted his wife after a public argument at a London restaurant on June 9.

Charles Saatchi, 70, was interviewed by British police for five hours about the fight, where he was spotted with his hands around Lawson's neck in a row he first downplayed as merely a pair's tiff. Photographers outside the restaurant captured the pictures of the confrontation, which were published this weekend to great public condemnation.

Saatchi received a formal police citation on Monday, called a caution, which means he admitted his actions. Had he not come clean, formal charges could have been brought, the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday. The caution ends the matter with police.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard, without naming names, issued a statement confirming the caution. "On Monday 17 June, a 70-year-old man voluntarily attended a central London police station and accepted a caution for assault."






Saatchi, a rich art collector and global ad agency co-founder who tied the knot with Lawson, now 53, in 2003, had first sought to downplay the exchange as a "playful tiff" and defended that while the images showed his hands on Lawson's neck, he did not have her in a tight grip. He claimed the images made the exchange seem worse than it really was.

But he admitted to police that he had choked his wife in a fight at a Mayfair area restaurant. Lawson was seen crying on the street outside the restaurant after the incident. 



"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 us all for months," Saatchi revealed to London's Evening Standard.

Lawson has not commented publicly on the incident. Her rep confirmed on Monday that she had taken her kids and left her home, although it was not clear if the move would be permanent.

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