This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, who admitted to snorting some cocaine in court last year, was stopped from boarding a plane from London to Los Angeles over the weekend.
Lawson, the 54-year-old chef who is a judge on The Taste, tried to catch a flight on British Airways at Heathrow Airport but wasn't allowed to board and then in an embarrassing moment, was sent back to collect her luggage. Although The Daily Mail reported that officials have not released information on the reasons behind her banned entry onto the flight to the U.S., they speculate that her drug confession was the reason behind it.
"She didn’t seem to say much, but she did not look happy," a witness at the airport told The Daily Mail.
Just a day before her flight, she tweeted that she was packing for a vacation.
The beloved author of "How to Be a Domestic Goddess" had admitted to using cocaine and marijuana in front her children in a highly-publicized trial in December involving two of her former personal assistants, according to TODAY. (And we highly doubt Lawson is the first ever TV star who has ever used the nose candy.) She denied she was a drug addict and mentioned her drug use to coincide with her turbulent relationship with ex-husband Charles Saatchi, 70, whom she divorced in July after photographers shot him grabbing her neck at a London restaurant, according to the AP.
"I was having a very, very difficult time,'' she said, according to CourtNewsUK (via TODAY). "I was being subjugated to intimate terrorism by Mr Saatchi."
Lawson was never convicted or charged for her drug use, TODAY reported. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman would not reveal to ABC News the reason behind Lawson's ban from traveling into the States, but said they asked her to apply for a visa. This is just plain silly as ABC News pointed out, British citizens do not need visas to travel to the U.S., but only for work.
The Telegraph reported that U.S. officials can ban foreigners permission to enter the U.S. if they've committed a drug offense, whether or not they've been charged for it. But it could take months before the ban could be lifted.
Anthony Bordain, her co-star on The Taste, was pissed about the whole ordeal and took to Twitter to defend Lawson (even making a crack-smoking Toronto Mayor Rob Ford reference):
I am absolutely mortified with embarrassment over the cruelty and hypocrisy of US actions re: #Nigella
— Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) April 3, 2014
travel. Unbelievable.
Toronto mayor, Rob Ford? Welcome to the USA. Nigella Lawson? No. REALLY? Absolutely appalling misuse of our system. And by whom? How?
— Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) April 3, 2014
Lawson decided to step away from the spotlight (we don't blame her!) and tweeted on March 31: "Off line for a while enjoying the ultimate; a holiday break with no signal!"
