Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi's 10-year marriage ended in an instant. Nearly two months after the celeb chef and advertising mogul's very public fight at a London restaurant — in which Saatchi was photographed with his hands around wife Lawson's throat — Lawson filed her own divorce papers late Tuesday, July 30. (Saatchi, 70, first announced plans to divorce in July.)
During a 70-second court hearing on Wednesday, July 31, a judge granted the spouses a decree nisi — the first legal step to ending their union. Although she wasn't present in court, the former Food Network star, 53, cited "unreasonable behavior" as grounds for their divorce. Paperwork revealed that both agree that the marriage has irretrievably broken. According to British law, a "decree absolute" will be issued in about six weeks, at which point their marriage will be officially done.
The Daily Mail reports that the pair, who wed in 2003, are worth an estimated $228 million and share an $18 million home in London's Chelsea neighborhood. Saatchi and the Nigella Bites star — mom to two children with her late husband John Diamond — are also said to have signed a prenuptial agreement.
Lawson moved out of their shared apartment shortly after the photos were released, and may be moving to Los Angeles to film her ABC show The Taste.
Claimed Saatchi in a Daily Mail statement earlier this month: "This is heartbreaking for both of us as our love was very deep, but in the last year we have become estranged and drifted apart. The row photographed at Scott's restaurant could equally have been Nigella grasping my neck to hold my attention — as indeed she has done in the past."
