World News Korner

LONDON — Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has admitted in a U.K. court that she has taken cocaine a handful of times. But she denied habitually using illegal drugs and accused her ex-husband of spreading that allegation to savage her reputation.

Lawson said Wednesday that ex-husband Charles Saatchi threatened to destroy her if she did not clear his name after he was photographed holding her throat outside a restaurant.

Lawson, 53, was appearing as a prosecution witness at the fraud trial of her former assistants Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo, a case that has exposed details of the TV star's tempestuous domestic life.

She said she had been reluctant to take the stand because she had already been subjected to a campaign of "bullying and abuse" from Saatchi, whom she divorced in July.

"He said to me at the start that if I didn't go back to him and clear his name he would destroy me," Lawson said.

And she accused Saatchi of spreading "false allegations of drug use" against her.

"I have been put on trial here ... and in the world's press," she said,

The Grillos — who are sisters from Italy — are accused of using credit cards loaned to them by Lawson and Saatchi for household expenses. The cards were then allegedly used to buy hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of luxury clothes, accessories and stays at high-end hotels.

Earlier, Lawson told a jury at Isleworth Crown Court in London that one of the accused employees was "a rock" who helped her overcome the trauma of her first husband's death — but left the family feeling betrayed by her misbehavior.

Lawson, famous for her sensuous manner and "domestic goddess" image, said Elisabetta Grillo — known to the family as Lisa — had been "a stalwart and helped me through a really difficult time" after the death from cancer of her first husband, John Diamond.