‘Since freeing myself from a brilliant and brutal man, I am now drug-free’

Nigella Lawson has had a score of TV successes, but it is her role in Nigella Goes to Court that could determine her reputation. In truth, however, her appearance at Isleworth crown court had all the dignity and style of a dishcloth left over after a day's filming.

Lawson was in Isleworth to give evidence in the trial of Italian sisters Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo, who are alleged to have defrauded her ex-husband, Charles Saatchi, of £600,000. The Grillos’ defence is that they were allowed to go on a spending spree in return for silence about Lawson’s drug habits. Lawson knew the allegations would be made. The allegations had come from PR people “dedicated to salvaging Mr Saatchi’s reputation and savaging mine”, she told Judge Robin Johnson.

These allegations could have repercussions, since Lawson is a media figure in the US where a censorious view is taken of drug-taking. Her prominence lured major US broadcasters NBC and CBS into a dingy part of west London for the case. “For a man who made millions from advertising and a woman who is a celebrity chef, their divorce could only have become an international media circus ... and it is ugly,” said the CBS reporter.

If Saatchi’s “Higella” email detailing her alleged drug habits had damaged her, Lawson lost little time in portraying him as self-centred, ever-demanding and domineering. The drug use had happened, she conceded, but it began when her first husband, John Diamond, was dying and was occasional, never habitual. “I can say that since freeing myself from a brilliant and brutal man, I am now totally cannabis and drug-free.”