her domestic goddess lifestyle. Known  for her recipe books and cooking shows,  

Lawson found fame with her picture-perfect  kitchen and her relatable personality. Curious  

about how she rose to the top? Here's  why Nigella Lawson is turning heads.  

Lawson wasn't born into a family of foodies,  but she certainly had a leg up from the very  

beginning. Her dad, Nigel Lawson, was a well-known  conservative politician, and her mother,  

Vanessa Salmon, was a popular British socialite  and heir to an enormous food industry dynasty.  

But despite having access to the finer things in  life, Nigella and her three siblings didn't appear  

to enjoy a peaceful home life. When Lawson  described her mother, she told The Guardian,

"She was one of those people who  was full of stress and anxiety.  

You know, if you knock something over  it will be difficult, and I'm clumsy."

Lawson also seemed to note that her childhood  may have been an unhappy one, adding,

"I don't think any of us [siblings] would regard  it as a childhood we would want to return to."

"I feel that my way of describing the past  is probably too violent. In a way, I feel,  

I have a scorched-earth policy."

While some chefs take their inspiration  from their family's love of food,  

for Lawson it was a very different  story. As AnOther magazine explained,  

the budding chef didn't exactly grow up  in a household that fostered a healthy  

relationship with food. In fact, her mom  Vanessa reportedly struggled with various  

eating disorders throughout her life and even  admitted to being afraid of certain foods.

"One of the things about coming from  a Jewish family, is that I think  

whatever kind of business you're in,  food is always, y'know, central."

But it appears that witnessing her  mother's difficult relationship with  

food was what inspired Lawson to do the  exact opposite. She told The Guardian,

"My attitude towards food is such a repudiation  of her, a triumph over her, thinking,  

'I'm not going to play that game.  I'm not going to be that thin.'"

Lawson's relaxed and joyful approach to  eating would later become the basis of  

the chef's successful career. According to the star herself,  

Lawson was actually very shy as a  child. While this personality trait  

may seem like the polar opposite of her  outgoing TV persona, Lawson has admitted  

that her introverted nature still affects  her as an adult. She explained to the BBC,

"I don't think being shy and being on television  

are opposites actually. […] When  I have a purpose I can do it."

"I don't know that I've ever  thought, 'Oh I need to cook to  

make myself feel better,' but I certainly  think cooking does make me feel better."

It turns out that Lawson's quieter nature  might have actually led to the star that we  

know and love today. As the chef  explained to the New Zealand Herald,  

she actually developed her seemingly innately warm  hosting persona as a way to deal with her shyness.

When Lawson was 19, she and her family spent a  year in Italy that would impact Nigella for life.  

She explained to Grub Street just  how informative that chapter was,  

both in regards to her approach to food, as well  as her sense of culture, telling the outlet,

"My personality changed somewhat. When I  spoke Italian, I became more voluble and  

less reserved. […] [My] sense of becoming  a person is inextricably linked with Italy,  

and becoming Italian. Or attempting to."

It's also clear that the exposure to  vibrant local cuisine inspired the  

chef as well. In her Italian cookbook,  Nigellissima, Lawson got the chance to  

explore her fascination with the country's  food culture. She told Fine Dining Lovers,

"Italian food has always been a huge influence.  […] In this book I found myself writing about  

the influence Italy has had on my cooking, as  an English cook. For me, Italy — and Italian  

food — have both been the most enduring  inspirations of my life, and my cooking."  

After spending time in Italy, Lawson enrolled  at the prestigious University of Oxford to study  

medieval and modern languages. But she claims  the most important thing she learned during her  

time as a student was just how much she loved to  cook for others. She recalled to the Oxford Mail,

"I would go to the Covered Market a lot to buy  onions and sausages. I cooked an awful lot. French  

onion soup was my speciality. […] That's when I  realized I was someone who liked feeding people."

"I have emotional connections to all  sorts of food, but it's more to do with  

what I've eaten, when."

But she wasn't just wow-ing her  friends with some home-cooked meals.  

She was also making a bit of a splash in  the media, and was frequently photographed  

for society magazines. It's clear  that even during her college years,  

she was already beginning to  show signs of a star-making turn.

After graduating college, Lawson landed her first  job — as a journalist. And it seems that at the  

time, working as a TV personality and cookbook  writer wasn't even in her plans. Lawson was  

soon tapped as the deputy literary editor of The  Sunday Times, after which she became a freelance  

journalist, writing for The Guardian and the  Daily Telegraph. Lawson also appeared on TV as  

a presenter and reporter, even covering Princess  Diana's tragic death for Newsnight, in 1997.

"Not all the strands of her life could come  together and she didn't always seem to get  

everything right. Which is why, perhaps, ordinary  women felt such a sense of connection with her."

It wasn't until 1985, when Lawson landed a food  column for The Spectator, that she began to cross  

over into her true passion. She went on to pen  another food column for British Vogue in 1995,  

and by that point, it was becoming clear  that food writing was Lawson's specialty.  

In 1992, Lawson married fellow journalist  John Diamond who also worked for The  

Sunday Times. The couple went on to have two  children, Bruno and "Mimi." And for Lawson,  

starting a family was a life-changing  experience. She revealed to Radio Times,

"People who don't have children imagine  

that their whole lives would be  all right if they had children,  

but they don't realize that having children gives  you lots of problems; one is in constant worry."

"It is very difficult to have a working life  if you have a family, if you have children."

By the looks of things, Lawson has  always remained deeply involved in  

her children's lives. When Bruno was  a teen, a friend told the Express,

"He adores his mummy's cooking and  appears quite often in her TV programmes,  

looking sheepishly out from his mop of hair  […] virtually licking the plate clean."

"I cook for my children. I  grew up eating my mother's hair  

and I don't see why they  can't grow up eating mine."

As for MiMi, The Daily Mail snapped her  having lunch with her mother, in 2020.  

It certainly seems like this famous chef has  always prioritized quality time with her kids.  

In 1997, just as Lawson's career  was taking off, her husband, John,  

was diagnosed with throat cancer. What  followed was a difficult four years,  

during which John's tongue had to be removed,  and he was fed through a tube. He died in 2001,  

at the age of 47. As The Guardian  noted, throughout their last few years,  

the couple made the most of their time together  by frequently throwing parties for their friends.  

Shortly after John's death, Lawson was already  back to work. She explained to The Telegraph,

"I took [two weeks] off. But I'm  not a great believer in breaks."

But it appears that this is exactly what John  

would have wanted for Nigella. In an  emotional farewell note, he wrote,

"How proud I am of you and what you  have become. The great thing about  

us is that we have made us who we are." Prior to her husband's death, Lawson lost  

her mother and sister to cancer. The chef's mother  was just 48 when she died, and her sister was just  

32. Their passing had a profound impact on Lawson  and she explained to Good Housekeeping in 2020,

"To be completely honest, I've never been able to  take for granted that I'd be alive by this age.  

Even if I were the sort of person who planned  ahead, I don't think I would have seen myself  

here. […] I kind of think you can't do  anything about [ageing] so why complain?"

Lawson went into more detail about  how her mom and sister's untimely  

deaths influenced her perceptions  on ageing, telling the Sunday Times,

"When you have seen people you love  die young, the idea of complaining  

about getting older is just revolting." Having spent more than a decade working as  

a journalist, in 1998, Lawson finally released  her first book, How to Eat: The Pleasures and  

Principles of Good Food. At the time, The  Guardian noted that it was so well-written,  

it was almost the kind of cookbook you could read  in the bedroom rather than just in the kitchen.

With literary success under her belt, Lawson hit  TVs across the globe. In 1998, she appeared on  

Nigel Slater's Real Food. And it didn't take long  for producers to realize that, without a doubt,  

Lawson was made for TV. Two years later,  in 2000, she landed her first cooking show,  

Nigella Bites. But while her on-camera  work is what made her a household name,  

it hasn't been an easy task, for the  chef. She told Good Housekeeping,

"It’s physically very draining standing up [and  filming] all day. […] It's a bit frightening  

and I always think, 'I don’t know if I can do this  again,' but then I start and I get excited again."

But fans need not fear: Lawson isn't  leaving our small screens anytime soon.  

As of 2020, she is still filming  the BBC series Cook, Eat, Repeat.

"You know that's going to be good." After mourning the loss of her first husband,  

Lawson remarried well-known art collector and  advertising exec, Charles Saatchi, fairly quickly.  

But after almost 10 years together, scandal  hit the couple after a photographer captured  

shocking images of Saatchi seemingly assaulting  Lawson in public. The photographer recalled the  

event, telling Vanity Fair that he had spotted the  couple sitting outside a restaurant, celebrating  

Saatchi's 70th birthday. Explaining that Saatchi  appeared to grab Lawson by the throat, he claimed,

"I saw her lurch violently backwards. Then he  did it a second time, and it was so violent."

The photos led to a major tabloid scandal,  and eventually, to court. The case was filled  

with wild accusations about everything from  embezzlement to drug use. Saatchi originally  

claimed that the photos merely showed a, quote,  "playful tiff." But in 2013, shortly after the  

scandal, Lawson and Saatchi divorced. Having her personal life strewn across  

the tabloids, while photographers closely  followed her family, was brutal for Lawson,  

who has always preferred her privacy. In  fact, the bad press proved to be so difficult,  

she developed a new policy of only discussing  her professional life in interviews.  

But while she's kept mum on personal  topics, Lawson did open up in one interview,  

explaining how the tabloid scandal had completely  impacted her life. She told The Irish Times,

"Becoming a tabloid story, and everything I went  through then, shame, various things, in a way gave  

me a form of trauma of its own. And I don't think  I've addressed that enough to talk about it."  

Despite the obvious challenges in her  personal life, Lawson has continued to  

steadily build her empire throughout the years.  In fact, she has reportedly sold at least 3  

million books around the world, while her  net worth sits somewhere around $15 million.  

She has also made sparkling appearances  on Top Chef, Iron Chef America,  

and Master Chef while continuing to release  cooking shows and specials on a regular basis.

"Nigella Lawson.”

“Gordon Ramsey named a turkey  after her. She's legit."

Even Lawson is able to acknowledge how far  she's come. She looked back at her early  

days and the release of her first book,  and admitted that everything had indeed  

changed for her. In fact, her celebrity  status just might be comparable to that  

of a beloved Royal. As British food writer,  Diana Henry, explained to The Irish Times,

"In the UK I often think […]  that she has Princess Diana-like  

status as a celebrity. She is that  well known, she is that well-liked."  

For Lawson, the COVID-19 pandemic forced her  to take a step back from her busy schedule  

and re-evaluate her priorities as she embarked  on lockdown, alone. She mused to The Guardian,

"I suppose that survival thing kicked in,  

and it felt important to think about food  because it became clear that it gave structure,  

sustenance, and pleasure. […] I'm very happy  not having to fill up my life going to things."

"This needs to be eaten in  calm and appreciative silence."

And while just about everyone has  had to lean in to a new normal,  

Lawson appears to have found the silver lining  in the face of the unknown. She told the outlet,

"I have learned to relish  solitude, which was prescient,  

it turned out. […] Lockdown showed  how much I enjoy cooking for myself."

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