Trinny Woodall says she ‘didn’t know’ about Charles Saatchi’s past

Despite images of Charles Saatchi clutching Nigella Lawson by the throat making headlines, Trinny Woodall “didn’t know” about it.

Trinny Woodall, former co-host of What Not to Wear, says she “didn’t know” her partner had been photographed grabbing his ex Nigella Lawson by the throat when they met.

The 55-year-old makeup and fashion guru has been linked to billionaire art dealer Charles Saatchi — the ex-husband of celebrity chef Nigella Lawson — for nearly six years, with the two spotted out for dinner together in 2013.

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Woodall and Saatchi were introduced by a mutual friend. Picture: FilmMagic

They were dining at the very same up-market Mayfair restaurant, Scott’s, where Saatchi, 76, was pictured grabbing Lawson by the throat that same year.

In fact, on another occasion at the same restaurant, they were seated at the very same table, it was reported at the time.

Saatchi and Lawson divorced soon after the incident, which led to Saatchi receiving a caution for assault following an investigation by police.

A confronting image of Saatchi grabbing Lawson’s throat made global news. Picture: Jean Paul/The People

But despite the incident making global headlines, Woodall, who was introduced to Saatchi shortly after his split, said she didn’t know about it.

Speaking to Stellar, she said, “Really weirdly, I still didn’t know any of that sh*t,” of the night they met, going on to reveal that she had only asked their mutual friend one question about Saatchi: whether he was “kind”.

“I would ask that of anyone,” Woodall explained to Stellar. “I realised in my 50s I wanted a kind heart. Two minutes later I get a call. There’s no, ‘Hi, it’s Charles,’ but just, ‘What do you mean I’m not kind?’,” she recalled.

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Stellar Magazine is available inside The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Herald Sun and The Sunday Mail.

“I thought I just need to get to know this person to see if I like them, and within a few months I knew I really, really cared about him,” she said.

The pair now live together in London.

Woodall said she feels like her and Saatchi are an ‘old couple’. Picture: Getty Images.

Woodall explained that after What Not To Wear — which she hosted with Susannah Constantine —ended in 2005, her life was riddled with hardship.

Her ex-husband and father of her 15-year-old daughter Lyla, musician Johnny Elichaoff, took his own life in 2014, leaving grieving and unemployed Woodall to raise their daughter alone.

To get on top of her finances, she rented out her house and sold her clothes — raising $125,000 — and launching makeup label Trinny London in 2017.

You can read the full interview in Stellar’s Strong Women of the Screen special, on sale now.

“I was earning no money, I was in a house way too expensive for what I could afford, I was a single parent because my daughter’s father died,” she said.

“There were moments when I was thinking, ‘Am I going to be able to pull this off?’”

Since its launch two years ago, the “capsule collection”, which combines stackable pots of skin-matched makeup, has a global cult following.

For the full story, Stellar Magazine is available inside The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Herald Sun and The Sunday Mail.

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