54 Facts About Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson then embarked upon a career as a freelance journalist, writing for a number of newspapers and magazines.

Nigella Bites won Lawson a Guild of Food Writers Award; her 2005 ITV daytime chat show Nigella met with a negative critical reaction and was cancelled after attracting low ratings.

Nigella Lawson hosted the Food Network's Nigella Feasts in the United States in 2006, followed by a three-part BBC Two series, Nigella's Christmas Kitchen, in the UK, which led to the commissioning of Nigella Express on BBC Two in 2007.

Nigella Lawson was born in 1960 in Wandsworth, London, one of the daughters of Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, a business and finance journalist who later became a Conservative MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer in Margaret Thatcher's government, and his first wife Vanessa Salmon, a socialite and the heiress to the J Lyons and Co.

Nigella Lawson's given name was originally suggested by her grandmother.

Nigella Lawson has attributed her unhappiness as a child, in part, to the problematic relationship she had with her mother.

Nigella Lawson's mother died of liver cancer in Westminster, London at the age of 48.

Nigella Lawson is a cousin to both George Monbiot and Fiona Shackleton through the Salmon family.

Nigella Lawson traced her ancestors to Ashkenazi Jews who originate from eastern Europe and Germany, leaving Lawson surprised not to have Sephardi ancestry, as she had believed.

Nigella Lawson uncovered that her maternal great-great-great grandfather, Coenraad Sammes, had fled to England from Amsterdam in 1830 to escape a prison sentence following a conviction for theft.

Nigella Lawson spent some of her childhood in the Welsh village of Higher Kinnerton.

Nigella Lawson had to move schools nine times between the ages of 9 and 18, and consequently she described her school years as difficult.

Nigella Lawson was educated at several independent schools, among them Ibstock Place School, Queen's Gate School and Godolphin and Latymer School.

Nigella Lawson worked for many department stores in London, and went on to graduate from the University of Oxford with a second-class degree in medieval and modern languages, as a student at Lady Margaret Hall.

Nigella Lawson originally worked in publishing, first taking a job under publisher Naim Attallah.

Nigella Lawson became the deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times in 1986 aged 26.

Nigella Lawson attracted publicity in 1989 when she admitted voting for Labour in an election, not her father's Conservative Party, and then criticised Margaret Thatcher in print.

In 1995 Nigella Lawson left a two-week stint at Talk Radio early after making a statement that her shopping was done for her, apparently due to its incompatibility with the radio station's desired "common touch".

Nigella Lawson had an established sense of cooking from her childhood, having had a mother who enjoyed cooking.

Nigella Lawson conceived the idea of writing a cookbook after she observed a dinner party host in tears because of an unset creme caramel.

Victor Lewis-Smith, a critic usually known for his biting comments, praised Nigella Lawson for being "formidably charismatic".

Nigella Lawson said of the US release, "In the UK, my viewers have responded to the fact I'm trying to reduce, not add to, their burden and I'm looking forward to making that connection with Style viewers across the US".

The book of Nigella Lawson Bites became the second best-selling cook book of Christmas 2002 in America.

In 2002 Nigella Lawson began to write a fortnightly cooking article for The New York Times, and brought out a profitable line of kitchenware, called the Living Kitchen range, which is sold by numerous retailers.

In November 2003, Lawson oversaw the menu and preparations for a lunch hosted by Tony Blair at Downing Street for George W Bush and his wife during their state visit to the UK.

Nigella Lawson later commented to Radio Times that on her first show, she was almost too frightened to come out of her dressing room.

Nigella Lawson added that having to pretend to be interested in the lives of the celebrities on her show became too much of an effort.

Nigella Lawson's third food-based television series, called Nigella Feasts, debuted on the Food Network in the United States in Autumn 2006 for a 13-week run.

Nigella Lawson came under criticism when viewers complained that she had gained weight since the debut episode of the series.

The rights to Nigella Lawson Express were sold to Discovery Asia.

The accompanying book to Nigella Lawson Express was released in the UK in September 2007, US in November 2007, and in Australia in 2008.

Nigella Lawson was featured as one of the three judges on a special battle of Iron Chef America, titled "The Super Chef Battle", which pitted White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford and Iron Chef Bobby Flay against chef Emeril Lagasse and Iron Chef Mario Batali.

Nigella Lawson obtained work experience in Italy during her gap year.

Nigella Lawson travelled to the United States in 2013 and starred alongside Anthony Bourdain in the reality cooking show The Taste.

Nigella Lawson was granted a visa to travel to the United States and travelled there for a continuation of the series.

In 2014, Nigella Lawson was hired by a chocolate company to appear in an advertisement, the advertisement was filmed in New Zealand in May for a local confection manufacturer Whittaker's.

Nigella Lawson was spokesperson for the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, giving the twelve points to Sweden's Mans Zelmerlow and his song "Heroes", which went on to win the contest.

Nigella Lawson returned to the show for the tenth series in 2018 and eleventh series in 2019.

Nigella Lawson met journalist John Diamond in 1986, when they were both writing for The Sunday Times.

In June 2013, photographs were published by The Sunday People of Nigella Lawson being grabbed around the neck by Saatchi, during an argument outside a London seafood restaurant.

Nigella Lawson said in court Saatchi subjected her to "intimate terrorism", that he threatened to destroy her unless she cleared him in court.

Subsequently, while giving evidence, Nigella Lawson claimed casual cruelty and controlling behaviour by Saatchi made her unhappy and drove her to occasional drug use.

Nigella Lawson cited as examples that Saatchi prevented her entertaining at home and punished her for going to a birthday party of a woman friend.

Nigella Lawson was not beaten but was left emotionally scarred.

Nigella Lawson made no public comment in response; however, court papers showed that it was Nigella Lawson who applied for divorce, citing ongoing unreasonable behaviour.

Nigella Lawson's lawyers demanded that Hillgrove remove comments about her from his blog.

Nigella Lawson said in court that ending her marriage to Saatchi had created intolerable conditions for herself and her family, describing Saatchi as "a brilliant but brutal man".

Nigella Lawson maintained she was "totally cannabis, cocaine, any drug, free" after the divorce.

On 30 March 2014 Nigella Lawson was not permitted to board a flight from London to Los Angeles.

Nigella Lawson is a supporter of the Lavender Trust which gives support to young women with breast cancer.

Nigella Lawson first became involved with the charity in 2002 when she baked some lavender cupcakes to be auctioned at a fundraising event, which sold for a significant amount of money.

Nigella Lawson subsequently featured the recipe in her book Forever Summer with Nigella.

In December 2008, Nigella Lawson was criticised by animal rights groups for comments which suggested it would be morally acceptable to wear the fur of an animal that one had killed, and that she would be proud to wear the fur of a bear that she had hunted or "[gone] into battle" with.

Nigella Lawson has described cooking as "a way of strengthening oneself", in the sense that "being able to sustain oneself is the skill of the survivor".