(CNN) — Because he says his wife is no longer speaking to him, multi-millionaire Charles Saatchi informed celebrity chef Nigella Lawson that he has begun divorce proceedings in a statement to the Daily Mail.
Tension between the pair hit the tabloids after Saatchi was photographed with his hand around her neck in mid-June. Lawson and her children moved out of their family home and hasn’t spoken to him since.
“I feel that I have clearly been a disappointment to Nigella during the last year or so, and I am disappointed that she was advised to make no public comment to explain that I abhor violence of any kind against women, and have never abused her physically in any way,” Saatchi wrote in the statement.
There was no immediate response from Lawson or her representatives to the announcement. The couple has been married for 10 years.
Lawson, known as the “queen of food porn,” has written numerous successful cookbooks and hosted several TV shows in Britain and the United States. Saatchi, an art dealer and former media mogul, denied that he attacked Lawson but told a London newspaper that he voluntarily went to the police to accept a police warning.
Victim support groups used the incident to highlight the enduring problem of domestic violence, though Saatchi said it was a playful grab.
“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. Nigella’s tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt,” he added. “We had made up by the time we were home. The paparazzi were congregated outside our house after the story broke yesterday morning, so I told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled.”
