Domestic goddess Nigella Lawson’s daughter has helped transform her life after the TV chef’s husband humiliated her at a restaurant table.
Exclusive pictures in the Sunday People of Nigella being grabbed by the throat by advertising millionaire Charles Saatchi shocked the world.
And just seven weeks after the dramatic public bust-up in 2013 the couple’s ten-year marriage was over.
For kitchen queen Nigella, 59, whose books and TV programmes have won her worldwide fans, it was a traumatic blow to her confidence.
She had often been photographed while out and about but she developed a fear of being seen in public.
Now she has overcome this thanks to Cosima Diamond, her 25-year-old daughter from her first husband, the late John Diamond.
Nigella said: “I have been forced to be guarded. I used to be more open and I’d like to think I will be again.
"Cosima said to me, ‘Mum, would you rather be a real person like you or someone who has hair and make- up done to go to the supermarket? It is better to be a real person.’ She’s right.”
Nigella, who also has a grown-up son Bruno, said her children are the biggest fans of her cooking but they make fun of her seductive presenting style.
She said: “When I am on TV I cook the food that I cook at home but my children always tease me.
“I do a running commentary at home of my life like I do on TV.
“I always wanted to do the advanced driving test as when you do it you have to do a commentary like, ‘I am now moving into second gear.’ I do feel I ought to take it.
“The thing about television is that it is both frightening and boring.
"It is not an act but I do think you get a bit nervous or a bit awkward when there is a camera on you.
“I was an incredibly shy child. My way of being quite shy or awkward is that I get quite camp.
“I do realise that and often I am being camp rather than being coquettish.
"It is not my business to worry about how I am perceived. When I meet readers that is now how they think of me.”
Today Nigella is popular Down Under thanks to her success as a guest judge on the Australian version of the TV cooking show MasterChef.
She said: “The Australian show is better. It’s better than the other ones.
The food is better.
I have not watched the one here so I am not talking about that, but what I notice is that the food is very good and they run it slightly differently.
"It seems to me to have a slightly friendlier atmosphere.
“I do like it as I like the people there. The programme has been going for 11 years.
They are very funny, Australians. I don’t go to America a great deal. I did for book tours but America is a very greedy monster.
“All they ever want to know is ‘What are you going to do next?’ and ‘How much more are you going to do?’
“It is not what I want to do. If I wanted to go and work non-stop and do that I would go there.
"I like lying about and reading books and drinking tea as well so I don’t want a life which just becomes about making television programmes.”
Critics believe Nigella has cracked Australia, but she said she is taking her new-found success with a pinch of salt.
She said: “Australians are quite funny. You have a laugh on set and it is something I understand more.”
But she added: “ I would not say I have broken Australia. It makes me sound rather violent.”
