Nigella Lawson has revealed she doesn’t like to plan too far ahead in life, after losing several of her family members young made her realise nothing is guaranteed.
The TV chef, 60, revealed on the Emma Barnett Show on Radio 5 Live that she feels wary about putting things into her diary for several months’ time as anything could happen.
She explained: ‘I think if you’re surrounded by people who have died young – my mum was 48, my sister was 32 and my late husband John was 47 – you soon realise that getting to an age cannot be taken for granted.
‘I don’t mean to say I went around catastrophising about it, but I certainly wouldn’t presume… even if I am putting in a diary date for six months ahead, I always have a slight thing that makes me say, “Well, what? Is this going to be…”’
Nigella added that the current coronavirus pandemic and the uncertainty it has caused has made others think twice about planning too far ahead, too.
She said: ‘I think perhaps we all have started thinking a bit more in that way. It’s not a morbid thought, because we have all seen since the pandemic that so many things that you take for granted, cannot be taken for granted.
‘It makes you look at the individual days more, either in gratitude or horror and sometimes a mixture.’
Nigella lost her mother Vanessa Salmon to liver cancer in 1985, her sister Thomasina to breast cancer in 1993, and her husband John Diamond to throat cancer in 2001.
The cook and food writer is returning to screens ahead of Christmas for Cook, Eat, Repeat, with the new series being Nigella’s first show to be broadcast on BBC Two in three years, after the successful Nigella: At My Table in 2017.
She recently told Good Housekeeping that losing so many of her loved ones at young ages made her not ‘dwell’ on things like her looks, as being healthy is so much more important.
‘I also know what the alternative is, so it feels wrong when you’ve been surrounded by people who have died young to say “My hair’s awful, I’ve got to get my roots done” or “My hands look like lizards,”’ she said.
‘So I don’t dwell on it. As long as you’re healthy, that really is the most important thing.’
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