The 53-year-old TV chef admitting snorting cocaine a handful of times with her dying first husband John Diamond, and once again in 2010 to help cope with the “intimate terrorism” of her second husband Charles Saatchi.
“The idea that I am a drug addict or habitual user of cocaine is absolutely ridiculous,” she said. “In July 2010 I was having a very, very difficult time.
“I felt subjected to intimate terrorism by Mr Saatchi. A friend of mine offered me some cocaine. I took it … it was a one-off.”
Nigella said the experience “spooked” her so she went to a doctor.
“I concluded that I did not have a drug problem, I had a life problem and I needed to attend to that and I did seek out a therapist,” she said.
Nigella also confessed to “smoking the odd joint” in the last year of her marriage to Saatchi.
“I found it made an intolerable situation tolerable,” she said. “It’s a false friend and not a good idea.”
She insisted she had been drug-free since she split from Saatchi earlier this year.
“Since freeing myself from a brilliant but brutal man, I’m now totally cannabis, cocaine, any drug-free,” she said.
Nigella also explained what happened the night Saatchi was pictured choking her at a Mayfair restaurant.
She denied Saatchi’s claims he was “checking her nose for cocaine”, insisting the abuse was triggered by a comment she made about wanting grandchildren.
“Someone walked by with a very sweet baby in a stroller and I said ‘I’m so looking forward to having grandchildren’,” she said.
“And he grabbed me by the throat and said: ‘I’m the only person you should be concerned with – I’m the only person who should be giving you pleasure.'”
In addition to the abuse claims, Nigella accused Saatchi of launching a “witch hunt” against her to try to ruin her reputation and career.
“He is on a campaign to ruin me in any way,” she said. “I think he likes everyone to do what he wants.”
She said she believed Saatchi had collaborated with her former personal assistants Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo to fabricate the drug claims.
The sisters are currently on trial for fraud after they were found to have spent $500,000 on taxis, flights and designer clothes on Nigella’s credit card.
Nigella and Saatchi had been due to testify against the Grillos together but Saatchi sensationally changed sides to back the sisters last month after they made new drug claims against Nigella.
They said Nigella had allowed them to spend whatever they wanted in return for their silence over her “daily drug abuse”. Saatchi said he “believed every word” of the sisters’ account.
The Grillos lawyers have strongly denied claim they approached Saatchi’s legal team after the divoce to ask if the charges could be dropped if they made drugs allegations against Nigella.
