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London police issued a formal warning to the husband of TV chef Nigella Lawson after disturbing pictures emerged of him grabbing her throat and covering her mouth, officials said yesterday.
Art collector Charles Saatchi voluntarily walked into a police station and was grilled for five hours about the images published by Sunday People.
Lawson, 53, hasn’t filed a complaint against her husband.
But Saatchi did get a “caution” — an alternative to prosecution for low-level offenses.
A suspect has to admit to a crime to receive one, and while it’s not a conviction, it can be used against the person if he goes to court for another crime.
The images that got him in trouble depict Saatchi — co-founder of advertising powerhouse Saatchi & Saatchi — grasping the Food Network personality’s throat at a London restaurant on June 9. Another shot (above) shows Saatchi, 70, covering her mouth.
“About a week ago, we were sitting outside a restaurant having an intense debate about the children, and I held Nigella’s neck repeatedly while attempting to emphasize my point,” Saatchi told the London Evening Standard. “There was no grip; it was a playful tiff.”
But Lawson is taking it seriously: her rep told US Weekly that on Sunday, she “left the family home” with her two children from a previous marriage.
Another source added, “We do not know when she will return. They slept at a family friend’s house last night.”