Nigella bites!
Nigella is the daughter of former Tory chancellor Nigel Lawson, but has admitted voting Labour in the past. Her mum, Vanessa, was from the family which owned Lyons Tea. Having changed school multiple times, she claims to have been an unhappy child who was often rude and difficult. Nigella didn’t pick up a cookery book until she was 15 and is not a trained chef. She was taught to cook by her mum. She vows not to feel guilty about enjoying treats after seeing her mum deny herself dessert until being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. Vanessa died aged 48. Nigella’s sister Thomasina also died young, at 32, from breast cancer. Having studied languages at Oxford University, Nigella briefly working as a chambermaid in Italy, then as a journalist. She wrote her first cookery book, How To Eat, in 1998. It became a hit and led to other best- sellers such as How To Be A Domestic Goddess. She has sold more than three million books. Her first TV series, Nigella Bites, hit screens in 1999 and has been followed by many more including Nigella Feasts and Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen. She has often sent sales for certain foodstuffs, including goose fat, soaring after featuring them in her recipes. Nigella likes hairy men. She says: “If I was going to go for someone smooth, I may as well be a lesbian.”
Famous for her saucy fingerlicking on telly, she loves sexy stockings: “I’ve worn them with nothing but a pair of shoes in bed before” and often shuns knickers to go “commando”. Despite being voted sexiest celebrity chef, the star hates looking in the mirror and reckons she has the legs of a “shot- putter”. Her first husband John Diamond died aged 47 from throat cancer. Nigella then wed art collector Charles Saatchi. They divorced in 2013.
The Chelsea fan’s favourite meal is roast chicken. She always carries Typhoo tea bags around with her and doesn’t mind serving down- to- earth foods such as Pringles to guests. Nigella once ate 30 pickled eggs for a £ 1,000 bet and has admitted taking drugs in the past. Worth £ 15million, she lives in a £ 5m mansion, but says her kids Cosima and Bruno should not inherit her fortune.
Nigella’s Cook, Eat, Repeat on BBC Two at 8pm tonight.