Nigella Lawson has been at the center of some major controversies over the past few months, including her drug scandal and her assistants’ fraud case. However, both the assistants were just acquitted on all charges of defrauding her, and Nigella claims that the court’s interest in her drug use distracted them from doing their job correctly and finding evidence on her assistants. Well, she’s obviously very bitter that her assistants got off scot-free, but I think she’s also angry that her public image took such a hit because of this court case.
After all, it was because of depositions that the whole world found out that she was a cocaine user, and in a statement, Nigella claims that the attention put on her drug use prevented the court from focusing on the actual criminal case regarding her assistants.
She claims the trial was a, “ridiculous sideshow of false allegations of drug use.” She also adds, “When false claims about habitual drug use were introduced I did everything possible to ensure the CPS was aware of the sustained background campaign deliberately designed to destroy my reputation. During the trial not one witness claimed to see me take drugs and not one of my three assistants was asked about these claims by the defense, despite being cross-examined at length. I did my civic duty, only to be maliciously vilified without the right to respond.”
The damage done to her reputation is permanent, and the court case clearly didn’t yield any success for her. Her assistants were charged with using $1 million on her credit cards, and although they didn’t deny the claims, they also said they spent the money with permission from Nigella – and because of the attention on her drug-addled past, the court decided to side with her assistants over her.
In the end, there is no such thing as recreational cocaine use. And really, there was no way to prove that the assistants were lying, especially when Nigella herself turned out to be such an unreliable witness.