Nigella Lawson's home life revealed: her children, siblings and former husbands

The Cook, Eat, Repeat chef is private about her personal life


nigella lawson
Updated: On 21 December 2023

Nigella Lawson is set to return to our screens with her festive special titled Nigella's Amsterdam Christmas. The star has an army of fans the world over, who love her simple, comforting recipes which always have that wow factor.

But behind the cameras, Nigella is extremely private when it comes to her personal life and children, and we rarely see photos of her family. It is not known whether the star has a partner at the moment. Read about the star's home life below...

WATCH: Nigella's home life and children

Nigella Lawson's house

Nigella lives in a £5 million pink-painted mews house in central London; she moved into her home in 2013 after splitting from her second husband, Charles Saatchi, who she previously lived within a £12 million mansion in Chelsea.

It is believed that the property boasts a cinema, a wine cellar and a modern kitchen. An Instagram photo of her garden showed a pretty pagoda surrounded by trees.

In her kitchen, Nigella has peppermint green kitchen cupboards and a matching AGA oven. She has metallic silver splashback panels and a matching hanging rod where she stores a combination of silver, copper and blue utensils.

The TV chef's former husband

Nigella wed renowned art collector Charles Saatchi in September 2003 and the couple were married for 10 years. The end of their 'tumultuous' marriage was featured in the press, and in 2013 they were granted a decree nisi. 

© Getty Images

Nigella Lawson was married to Charles for 10 years

Nigella's first husband

The cook's first husband was journalist John Diamond, who she met in 1986 when they worked on The Sunday Times together. They married in Venice, Italy, in 1992, but tragically, John died of throat cancer in March 2001 when he was just 47.

© Getty Images

Nigella's first husband, the late John Diamond

The chef's children

Nigella is mum to two children, Cosima Thomasina, 29, and Bruno Paul, 26, with her late husband John Diamond.

© Getty Images

Cosima and Bruno Diamond (right)

Grazia recently revealed that Cosima's nickname is 'Mimi' and she attended the private Latymer Upper School in West London.

© Getty Images

Nigella shares Cosima with John Diamond

In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Nigella revealed: "When I am on TV I cook the food that I cook at home but my children always tease me. I do a running commentary at home of my life like I do on TV."

The food writer's siblings

The TV star is one of four children: sisters Thomasina and Horatia and her journalist brother Dominic. Sadly, Thomasina passed away when she was 31 from breast cancer, and we can see Nigella's tribute to her sister in her daughter Cosima's middle name. Nigella was pregnant with Cosima when her sister died.

Her parents

Nigella's parents are Nigel Lawson, a former politician, and Vanessa Salmon, who was heiress to the J.Lyons and Co. fortune. Her mother tragically died aged 48 from liver cancer in 1985, while her father Nigel sadly passed away aged 91 in April 2023. 

© Mike Marsland

Nigella and Nigel had a close relationship

The chef recently confessed that following her mother's death, she refused to let herself feel guilty about enjoying food after watching her mum deny herself anything sweet until just two weeks before her death.

© Getty Images

Nigella as a young girl with her sister, mother and father

Writing in her book Cook, Eat, Repeat, Nigella explained: "I was brought up by a mother - the cook I have learned most from - whose grimly exuberant output in the kitchen was set in painfully sharp relief, and indeed fostered, by an expanding pattern of self-denial and self-punishment; not an uncommon syndrome, incidentally.

"Diagnosed with terminal cancer two weeks before her death, she started eating - for the first time, she said giddily - without worry or guilt."

More Parenting

See more