Nigella Lawson – Net Worth

Lawson has an estimated net worth of approximately $20 Million. A huge component of her earnings are through her cooking show ‘Nigella’s Kitchen’ and her best-selling cook books.  Her cookware company ‘Living Kitchen’ is valued at $8.9 million.  Till date, she has sold more than 3 million cook books.

The rise of Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lucy Lawson is a reputed English journalist, television personality as well as a gourmet, and food writer. Lawson is known for her award winning show ‘Nigella Bites’ which was also made into a best-selling cookbook of the same name. Lawson started her career in the capacity of a book reviewer as well as a restaurant critic. In 1986, The Sunday Times named her the deputy literary editor. She later started work as a freelance journalist.

Early Life and Education

Lawson was born on 6 January, 1960 in an affluent family in Wandsworth, London to Vanessa Salmon and Nigel Lord Lawson of Blaby. Her mother was the hier of the J. Lyons and Co. fortune and her father served in the Margaret Thatcher government as a Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lawson was raised Jewish and has three full-blood siblings; brother Dominic and sisters Horatia and Thomasina, whom she lost to breast cancer in 1993. Lawson’s parents divorced in 1980 and she acquired half-siblings Tom and Emily from her fathers second marriage.

Lawson had a disturbed childhood and moved schools nine times from the ages 9 to 18. Some of the schools she attended include Queen’s Gate School, Ibstock Place School as well as Godolphin and Latymer School. She later attended and graduated from the University of Oxford, earning a degree in medieval and modern languages.

 

Career Rise

Lawson started a career as a freelancer, initially writing food and make-up columns. She published her first book ‘How to Eat’ in 1997 and followed it up with another best-seller in 2000 titled ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’ which focused on baking. While her first book sold 300,000 copies her second one sold 180,000 copies within four months and also won her a WH Smith Book Award in 2001. Her show, based on her book ‘Nigella Bites’ aired on E! and Style Network. Her other best-selling books include ‘Feast’ in 2004, ‘Nigella Express’ in 2007, ‘Nigellissima’ in 2012 and ‘Simply Nigella’ in 2015.

Her book ‘Feast’ was converted into a television show named ‘Nigella Feasts’ that ran for 13 weeks on the USA Food Network in 2006 as well as ‘Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen’ that aired in the same year. In 2007, Lawson started working on another 13 part series titled ‘Nigella Express’ on BBC as well as Nigellissima, an 8 part series on the same network, the following year. Lawson has made appearances on shows such as ‘MasterChef Australia’ and ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’.

Nigella Lawson – Young Pictures

Books

Lawson wrote the best-selling cook book ‘How to Eat’ in 1998, selling more than 300,000 copies worldwide. She also wrote the book ‘How to Be a Domestic Goddess’ in the year 2000 and won in the category Author of the Year at the British Book Awards. For her work on ‘Nigella Bites’ Lawson has earned multiple awards such as the ‘Guild of Food Writers awards’, World Food Media Award for best TV food show and WH Smith Book Awards – Lifestyle Book of the Year award.

Personal Life

Lawson met John Diamond, also a Sunday Times journalist in 1986 and married him in 1992 in Venice, Italy. Together they have two children; daughter Cosima and son Bruno. In 1997, Diamond was diagnosed of throat cancer, of which he died in 2001, at the age of 47.

In September 2003, Lawson got married to art collector Charles Saatchi, but the couple divorced in July 2013, after Lawson alleged that she was subjected to mental abuse by Saatchi and asked for divorce on the grounds of “unreasonable behavior” on his part.’

After Saatchi, Lawson has been dating Ronan Bennett, TV producer and author.  He was wrongly convicted of a murder of an IRA policeman in the 70s and has served 18 months behind bars.  He had also been in trial with three other people over a robbing conspiracy and possession of stolen goods.  He was cleared off those charges as well.

 

Cooking as a way of life

Nigella Lawson believes that cooking is akin to leading a good  life. She says, “When you cook, there is some sort of structure but at the same time, you loosen up and go with the flow. Instead of striving for perfection, we must acknowledge our mistakes and move ahead.”