Nigella Lawson's Husband Claims He Wasn't Really Choking Her, Was "Playful Tiff"...Um, Ok, Suurreee

Nigella Lawson's husband Charles Saatchi was clearly choking her in public in a recent horrifying set of photographs. His hand was wrapped around Lawson's throat, and she looks terrified and is crying.

Now, Saatchi  is saying he wasn't choking Nigella, and that it was a "playful tiff". Um...okayyyy. The disturbing photographs of British chef Nigella Lawson and her husband choking her at a restaurant, released by the Mirror yesterday, shocked people around the world.  Saatchi has been staying out of the media since the incident, but he's now released a statement. He said,

About a week ago, we were sitting outside a restaurant having an intense debate about the children, and I held Nigella's neck repeatedly while attempting to emphasise my point.

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.

We had made up by the time we were home."

Um...what? In the photos, Saatchi is holding Lawson's throat and she is crying, grimacing, and looks frightened. An onlooker said,

"I have no doubt she was scared. She was very tearful and constantly dabbing her eyes. Nigella was very, very upset."

Jezebel called the statement  "unfathomably callous, delusional, and disturbing", saying "There is no such thing as "holding someone's neck repeatedly while trying to emphasize a point" in a "playful" manner. There is no such thing as an "intense debate" that doubles as a "playful tiff." Saatchi's behavior was intimidating, publicly humiliating, and abusive."

Nigella was seen leaving their home with a suitcase and her son. Saatchi is claiming this was because he "told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled". (which, again...husband abuses wife, then orders her away because it's her fault?!)

According to the Standard, Lawson has no detailed plans to return.

Perhaps that's the only happy news out of this story.