Charles Saatchi says he is divorcing Nigella Lawson

 

The very public disintegration of the marriage of Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson continued on Sunday as the multimillionaire art collector issued a statement to a newspaper saying he was divorcing the TV chef.

Former advertising executive Saatchi, 70, who accepted a police caution after photographs of him with his hand around her neck during a row outside a restaurant were published, told the Mail on Sunday: "I am sorry to announce that Nigella Lawson and I are getting divorced."

The newspaper said Lawson, 53, was not aware pre-publication "of the divorce ultimatum being issued by her husband". Later her spokesman said: "There is no comment from Nigella."

In a statement published in the newspaper, Saatchi said the couple had drifted apart and that he felt he had "clearly been a disappointment" to his wife in the last year or so. He was also disappointed she had not spoken out in his defence when he was accused of physical violence against her after the pictures, taken outside Scott's restaurant in Mayfair, central London, where published on 16 June.

Lawson left the couple's marital home in Chelsea shortly afterward, and, reportedly, has been refusing to answer texts and voicemails from her husband.

In his statement published on Sunday, Saatchi said: "I am sorry to announce that Nigella Lawson and I are getting divorced. 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.

"I feel that I have clearly been a disappointment to Nigella during the last year or so, and I am disappointed that she was advised to make no public comment to explain that I abhor violence of any kind against women, and have never abused her physically in any way."

He said his hands were around her neck, but no pressure was applied. It was a gesture, to hold her attention, and "could equally have been Nigella grasping my neck to hold my attention – as she has done in the past, although not in front of Scott's with a photographer snapping away".

The still photograph gives a "wholly different and incorrect implication", his statement said, and she had given a statement to the police to support this view.

It adds: "I am sorry that we had a row. I am sorry that she was upset. I am even more sorry that this is the end of our marriage."

Saatchi, who married Lawson, his third wife, 10 years ago and following the death of her first husband, John Diamond, 47, from throat cancer in 2001, wished her the best for the future and "her continuing global success" and said he felt "very fortunate to have had such a lovely wife for many years".

As Saatchi was vilified as a wife-beater, and Lawson portrayed as a victim of domestic violence, he voluntarily went to Charing Cross police station and accept a police caution. He later made an ill-judged comment to the London Evening Standard, where he is a columnist, describing the incident as a "playful tiff" and that he had accepted the caution to prevent the incident "hanging over them".

Lawson had subsequently been pictured without her wedding ring.