Art tycoon Charles Saatchi has dismissed shocking photos of him with his hands around his tearful wife's throat as a 'playful tiff'
The multimillionaire was caught on camera clutching his third wife Nigella Lawson's neck as they sat outside their favourite Mayfair restaurant.
But the 70-year-old arts collector has insisted that they were having an 'intense argument' and the TV cook was only crying because she hates it when they row.
Shocking pictures: Sitting in their favourite Mayfair restaurant, Charles Saatchi repeatedly grabs his wife Nigella Lawson by the neck
Mr Saatchi is almost certain to be questioned by detectives within weeks
Ms Lawson looked distressed as her husband of ten years grabs her by the neck in Mayfair
The columnist for the Evening Standard told the newspaper: '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 emphasise my point.
'There was no grip, it was a playful tiff. The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place. Nigella’s tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt.
'We had made up by the time we were home. The paparazzi were congregated outside our house after the story broke yesterday morning, so I told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled.'
However, despite the multimillionaire's comments to the Evening Standard, police revealed that they were likely to question them about the incident.
The Metropolitan Police said that although no official complaint had been made by Miss Lawson, officers were ‘aware’ of the pictures and ‘inquiries are in hand to establish the facts of the incident’.
The couple were seen outside Scott's restaurant in Mayfair, London. The Metropolitan Police said that although no official complaint had been made by Miss Lawson, officers were 'aware' of the pictures
Other diners watched as the couple appear to have a heated exchange at their table
As a waiter and other diners chatted, Mr Saatchi appeared to put his hand to a tearful-looking Miss Lawson's throat
This means Mr Saatchi is almost certain to be questioned by detectives within weeks about exactly what took place in the restaurant.
The couple, who are thought to be worth £128million, had just finished eating outdoors at their favourite seafood restaurant Scott’s last Sunday when Mr Saatchi is reported to have started a heated and angry exchange with his wife.
Miss Lawson, 53, looked tearful as he grabbed her neck four times, first with his left hand and then both.
'It was utterly shocking to watch. I have no doubt she was scared. It was horrific, really'
Witness
As he held her neck, they clutched hands across the table before Mr Saatchi tweaked her nose and used both wrists to push her face.
Afterwards, Miss Lawson dabbed her tearful eyes in a napkin as he tapped his cigarettes impatiently upon the table.
She then gulped a whole glass of wine before appearing to attempt to pacify him with a trembling voice. During the attempted reconciliation, she leaned over the table and kissed his right cheek.
Mr Saatchi, who helped mastermind former prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s election campaigns, then marched off from the table before his wife followed while wiping away her tears.
The apparent assault is said to have put huge strain on their ten-year marriage, his third and her second.
The 70-year-old art tycoon tweaked his 53-year-old wife's nose as they sat at the table facing each other
During an attempt to reconcile, Ms Lawson leaned over the table and kissed her husband's right cheek
A witness was quoted in a Sunday newspaper as saying: ‘It was utterly shocking to watch.
‘I have no doubt she was scared. It was horrific, really. She was very tearful and was constantly dabbing her eyes. Nigella was very, very upset.
‘She had a real look of fear on her face. And yet she kissed him. She appeared to be a woman who loves him but was clearly unable to stop him being abusive, frightening and disrespectful to her.’
Neighbours of the couple also spoke of their ‘volatile’ relationship. One said they had previously heard the pair having a bitter argument loudly in the street.
But the neighbours dismissed talks of a split saying they had been spotted walking happily hand-in-hand during the weekend.
One said: ‘They’re both characters and if they did this I’m sure they made up straight away as I’ve seen them together looking happily recently.
‘They argue in the streets and are volatile at times but that could just be their form of passion. Those pictures do look unpleasant though.'
A tearful Nigella dabbed her eyes with a napkin as both she and her husband appear upset
Miss Lawson wiped her eyes as her husband tapped his cigarettes against the table. It is not the first time the couple have been seen arguing publicly
Despite the row, Miss Lawson appears to have given no indication about the incident, or that there is any trouble in her personal life, after tweeting about recipes and telling her followers about restaurants that she has visited.
She also tweeted that she was celebrating the end of her children's exams in school, by making them a lasagne and brownies.
It is not the first time the couple have been seen arguing publicly, but the first that has apparently involved him manhandling her.
Miss Lawson has recently spent a lot of time travelling across the US promoting her new book and successful television series.
The couple live in a £12million former 18th century brewery and gas engineer works that they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds converting since they bought the seven-bedroom home in 2010.
Mr Saatchi rested his head in his hand while his wife appeared to be emotional and leaned in to talk to him
Nigella Lawson looked tearful as her husband left the table they were sitting at and walked away
Miss Lawson's 17-year-old son Bruno yesterday helped his mother into a black taxi before Mr Saatchi left in another cab shortly afterwards.
Both refused to answer questions about the incident but they were photographed together at the same restaurant on Saturday.
Miss Lawson has two children, Cosima, 19, and Bruno, with her husband John Diamond, who she met while they worked at The Sunday Times.
She moved in with Mr Saatchi, who was a friend of her first husband, nine months after he died of throat cancer aged 41 and shortly after her debut cooking television show Nigella Bites aired.
Charles left his wife of 15 years, Kay Hartenstein, with whom he has a daughter called Phoebe, and pursued his relationship with the Domestic Goddess.
After the pair had finished their meal, a sad-looking Nigella walked away from her husband with her eyes cast to the floor
'Look of fear': Miss Lawson looks emotional and wipes away tears after the incident in central London
Both have refused to answer questions about the incident but they were photographed together at the same restaurant on Saturday
In 2002 his former wife revealed that she had had no idea their marriage was over until one of her daughter's teachers said how sorry she was to hear about the Saatchis' divorce.
Despite it being his third marriage, the art tycoon seems happy to criticise his wife, who in a 2007 interview dubbed him 'the exploder', the Daily Telegraph reported.
She said in 2007: 'I'll go quiet when he explodes, and then I am a nest of horrible festeringness.'
He has made many scathing comments about Nigella's food. In a 2011 interview, Miss Lawson recalled how he once said: ‘I like toast with Dairylea, followed by Weetabix for supper.'
She added: 'Charles said to me there is nothing you could cook ever that would compare favourably with Weetabix,'
'I suggested he joined me in some prawn dansak I had made recently and said "how was it ?". He told me it was the most disgusting thing he'd ever eaten and he was telling me so I never gave it to him again.
'It is an amusing challenge for me to get to grips with his eating habits I can tell you.'
Mr Saatchi admits Miss Lawson’s food is 'a bit wasted' on him 'but the children like it.'
Yesterday morning Ms Lawson and her son Bruno were seen leaving his Chelsea flat, and refused to comment on the pictures
Yesterday Ms Lawson climbed inside a taxi with her son Bruno, before Mr Saatchi left in another cab shortly afterwards
The art mogul, who is notoriously reclusive, has only occasionally answered questions about his personal life.
In a 2010 interview where a member of the public asked him whether he considered himself an idiot or an optimist for marrying three times, the arts patron said that Nigella found it 'common' being his third wife.
He said: 'We all know the thing about second marriages being a triumph of hope over experience, but then once one makes a habit of getting married, it seems a bit rude to go out with anyone and not marry them.
'Nigella finds it rather common to be my third wife, and would have found it more chic to be my fifth.'
In a recent interview, Miss Lawson revealed that she was physically abused by her mother when she was a child.
A violent and depressive woman, Vanessa Salmon – who married former Conservative Chancellor Nigel Lawson, would lash out at her and her brother, former Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic, when they made too much noise, she claimed.
In December the couple were seen again at Scott's, where Mr Saatchi was seen clapping his hand over his wife's mouth
Charles (right) pictured and his second wife Kay Saatchi, who he left and afterwards married Nigella, pictured left with her late husband John Diamond
She said her mother's actions meant that she never cries, and refuses to weep even as an adult.
She is convinced that she in particular would face her mother's wrath because she 'just didn’t like me'.
Miss Lawson, who was one of four children, told FT Weekend in November: ‘I never thought I could please her.
'She was funny but depressed and so sensitive to noise. The sound of a plastic bag being crinkled would send her deranged. She’d shout at all of us and say, "I'm going to hit you till you cry", and so I never would cry. I still don't.
'It wasn’t a calculated thing; it was hot-blooded hitting, a thrashing out of things. Once she had to stop hitting Dominic [Nigella’s brother] as she hurt her hand.
'She just didn’t like me; maybe because I came after Dominic the princeling and I was my father’s girl she was jealous, I don’t know.
'I would say I’m sorry for whatever it was, some mess, and she’d say, "Why do you think being inconsiderate is an excuse?"'
Domestic violence is a top priority crime in the capital, and senior officers will want to investigate even without a complaint from the victim.
A Met Police spokesman said: ‘Officers are aware. Inquiries are in hand to establish the facts of the incident.’
A Scott’s spokesman said: ‘A spokesman for Scott's said: 'The staff and management at Scott's are aware of the reports in the media and would like to make it clear that they did not see the alleged incident nor were they alerted to it at the time.
'As this is now a police matter we cannot comment further.’
Neither representatives for Miss Lawson or Mr Saatchi were available for comment this morning when contacted by the Mail Online.
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