The violent end of their relationship was splashed across the front pages but Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi have reportedly negotiated a swift divorce to avoid any more of their dirty being aired in public.
Documents detailing the division of their estimated $250 million in assets were filed with England’s High Court last week after Saatchi brokered a deal directly with his estranged wife’s lawyer and cousin Fiona Shackleton — who represented both Prince Charles and Paul McCartney in their divorces.
The couple are believed to have signed a pre-nuptial agreement before they wed in 2003 and Saatchi was reportedly keen to come to a settlement agreement quickly to avoid court, where details of their private life and relationship would have been made public.
“Fiona prepared a full court document, every detail of every asset was listed, and an agreement was reached with no dispute,” a friend of Saatchi’s told The Daily Mail.
“They have agreed never to make public the terms of the divorce or financial settlements. Fiona lodged the divorce document with the court last Friday.”
Saatchi and Lawson’s marriage erupted last month when he was photographed apparently choking her outside a London restaurant.
He brushed the incident off as a “playful tiff” but the photographer came forward and said he had witnessed “27 minutes of madness” as Saatchi repeatedly abused his wife.
Lawson moved in with her sister in the aftermath of the event but was said to be “blindsided” when Saatchi announced he was divorcing her in an open letter to a Sunday newspaper.
