Nigella Lawson spoke on how she had dealt with public scrutiny amid her divorce from art collector Charles Saatchi, who she was married to for 10 years before he was captured on camera putting his hands around her neck.

During that time in 2013 a number of stories circulated about Nigella in the media after the famous chef gave testimony responding to accusations of drug abuse, admitting to isolated incidents of cocaine and marijuana use.

“It wasn’t just about being in the paper all the time,” she told The Times.

“It was generally about feeling exposed and under attack. In a way, it would have been much better for me to be able to speak openly. It goes against my nature not to.

“But I do think that becoming a tabloid story, and everything I went through then, shame, various things , in a way gave me a form of trauma of its own. And I don’t think I’ve addressed that enough to talk about it.”

Although she is one of Britain’s most loved chefs Nigella has dealt with her fair share of tragedies outside of the kitchen.

The 63-year-old domestic goddess rose to fame in 1998 with her first cookery book How To Eat, and one year later she hosted her own cooking show, Nigella Bites, on Channel 4.

The award-winning TV cook has had many highs and lows through her successful career. Just three years after her cookbook took off, her first husband, journalist John Diamond, tragically died of throat cancer aged just 47.

He was credited with helping develop her brand and transform her into a national treasure.

The pair met while both working at The Telegraph in 1989, then married just three years later in Venice, Italy.

“I was a journalist – not a food journalist, but I did a lot of cooking. As a consequence I cooked for editors quite a bit,” Nigella explained to BBC Radio 2 after his death.

“John, my late husband, said to me, ‘You always talk about food in this really confident way. You should write about it!’ So I did.”

John was diagnosed with oral cancer in 1995 and found it therapeutic to write about his illness in his column and in his best-selling book, C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too.

The popular journalist, who is the father of Nigella’s children Cosima and Bruno, was praised for his witty and thought-provoking articles.

But he also had great faith in Nigella, who admitted she was naturally shy, to be a success, and pushed her further into the limelight. H

e wrote down a heartbreaking final message to his wife, confessing he was immensely proud of her. “How proud I am of you and what you have become. The great thing about us is that we have made us who we are,” read John’s emotional message.

Sadly, John passed away in March 2001 while his wife had been filming her TV show.