Nigella Lawson

'I've had a layer of skin removed, I'm sensitive' - Nigella Lawson opens up about life since split from Saatchi

Successful celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has opened up about her life since her split from tycoon Charles Saatchi.

'I've had a layer of skin removed, I'm sensitive' - Nigella Lawson cries as she opens up about life since split from Saatchi. Photo: Open Mike Productions/PA Wire

The 54-year-old spoke about the chaos of the last nine months of her life on The Michael McIntyre Chat Show.

“I'm not an innocent, I understand how it works. I just don't involve myself. I don't speak and don't comment. I could say things and be indiscreet but I don't want to,” she said as she spoke about the public reaction to the latest events in her private life.

“The real truth is if you don't read things and don't get too involved it doesn't enter your bloodstream. If it doesn't enter you bloodstream you are not contaminated.”

“What I have found is it has given me a far too sensitised reaction to newspapers. We all like gossiping in our own lives so I don't take a lofty view,” she continued.

“I just perhaps feel having had a layer of skin removed I am more sensitive to other people's fortunes.”

Nigella first hit headlines last year when photos of her now former husband gripping her neck as they dined in an upmarket London restaurant emerged.

“I'm not an innocent, I understand how it works. I just don't involve myself."

The chef continued to feature on the front pages as herself and Saatchi went to court for the trial of the former couple’s two personal assistants who were accused of fraud.

Allegations of Lawson’s past drug use were heard during the court proceedings.

“I'm alive and I've found somewhere to live. I have had better times, it is spring and I am feeling better and I am very happy to be here,” she told McIntyre of her life now.

“I have been alive for longer than you so I know life has its dips and it can get better and you can't fight it.

“I try not to live in the public sphere very much,” she continued.

“I just perhaps feel having had a layer of skin removed I am more sensitive to other people's fortunes.”

“You have your own life and you are the person inside. I really think if the major thing in your life is what people who don't know you think then you are living your life wrong.

“I'm not particularly guarded and I say and do some things I may regret later. But I would rather embarrass myself and be a bit idiotic sometimes than spend my whole life worrying about what people think.”

The Michael McIntyre Chat Show airs on BBC1 on Monday at 10.35pm.