Police say they are aware of reports that Nigella Lawson was assaulted in public by her husband Charles Saatchi.
Scotland Yard said there had been no arrests and ‘inquiries are in hand to establish the facts in order to assess whether an investigation is necessary’ after pictures emerged of the TV chef apparently being throttled by her 70-year-old partner in the street.
The advertising chief was caught on camera grabbing his 53-year-old wife by the throat in photos which appeared in the Sunday People.
Onlookers said Lawson appeared devastated after the incident outside celebrity haunt Scott’s restaurant in Mayfair on Saturday.
‘Nigella was very, very upset. She had a real look of fear on her face. No man should do that to a woman,’ a source told the Sunday tabloid.
‘She raised her voice and got angry but at the same time was trying to calm him down, almost like you would try to calm down a child. He was being intimidating, threatening.’
Lawson, who has been married to Saatchi for nine years, was unavailable for comment.
A police spokesman said no complaint had been made about the incident.
