Is Nigella Lawson sending a message to husband Charles Saatchi? On Wednesday, June 19 — just a few days after photos were published of Saatchi, 70, grabbing his wife's throat during what appeared to be a tense conversation — the celebrity chef was spotted out and about minus one very significant piece of jewelry: her wedding ring.
The sighting was the first of Lawson, 53, since Sunday, when she left her home with kids Cosima and Bruno, her children with late first husband John Diamond. Eyewitnesses report seeing her head to a local restaurant in Mayfair, London, near the property where she is purported to be staying.
"We do not know when she will return [home]," a source close to the former Food Network star told Us Weekly on Monday. "[She and the kids] slept at a family friend's house last night."
Saatchi, for his part, still has not apologized for the instantly infamous "choking photos," which showed him putting his hands around Lawson's throat during a meal about two weeks ago at London seafood eatery Scott's. He has, however, accepted a police caution for the assault.
"Although Nigella made no complaint I volunteered to go to Charing Cross station and take a police caution after a discussion with my lawyer, because I thought it was better than the alternative of this hanging over all of us for months," he explained in a statement to U.K. publication The Evening Standard, where he is a columnist.
Of the photos, he said earlier: "There was no grip, it was a playful tiff. The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place."