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Nigella Lawson's ex-husband Charles Saatchi was "astounded" by the scale of her alleged drug-taking, a court heard.

He was said to be furious after discovering her "guilty secret" following claims that she had been snorting cocaine every day for a decade and using cannabis and prescription pills.

The millionaire art dealer branded her "Higella" - and also accused her of "poisoning" her daughter Cosima, 19, with drugs and "trashing her life". He added: "Classy!"

And it was also suggested that the drug allegations may have been the cause of the row in which Saatchi was pictured grabbing a tearful Nigella by the throat and tweaking her nose at a Mayfair restaurant in June.

At the time Saatchi dismissed the incident as a "playful tiff", but accepted a police caution for assault. The couple divorced seven weeks later after 10 years of marriage.

The sensational drug claims emerged at a pre-trial hearing involving two of Nigella's personal assistants who are accused of fraud.

Italian sisters Francesca, 34, and Elisabetta Grillo, 41, are said to have spent £300,000 on designer clothes and first-class air travel using Saatchi's company credit card.

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They claim they had a "tacit understanding" with the 53-year-old domestic goddess that they could spend what they liked - as long as they didn't "shop" her to her husband over her use of drugs.

The pair, who had worked for Nigella since 2001, were arrested in August after Saatchi, 70, discovered the extent of their credit spree.

A judge at Isleworth crown court in West London had previously ruled that the sisters - described as "kitchen confidantes" in the TV chef 's 2011 cookbook - could not use her alleged drug use in their defence.

But in a dramatic U-turn, it was decided yesterday that the "bad character" claims would be admitted as evidence.

Judge Robin Johnson read out an email in which Saatchi blasted his ex-wife for abusing drugs with Cosima, known as Mimi - her daughter from her first marriage to John Diamond, who died of cancer in 2001.

In the message, sent at 9.06pm on October 10, Saatchi accused his ex of ruining the teenager's life.

He added: "Of course now the Grillo sisters will get off on the basis that you, Mimi [and another person] were so off your heads on drugs that you allowed the sisters to spend whatever they liked. And yes I believe every word they have said."

During the hearing, Anthony Metzer QC, defending Elisabetta, referred to the infamous restaurant bust-up, which was revealed by our sister paper the Sunday People, on the terrace of Scott's restaurant in Central London. He said: "The row may well have had something to do with Nigella taking drugs, and the issue before the court and whether she gave authority to use the cards."

(Image: PA)

Saatchi has insisted he had no idea that his ex-wife had been taking drugs during their marriage. But he became convinced that she was after carrying out an investigation among other members of staff. As a result, said Mr Metzer, he believed "the defendants' versions that she has been abusing drugs." The lawyer claimed the sisters were treated as "pawns" in the bitter break-up.

He added: "The bad character application relates to Miss Lawson's alleged use of both class A and class B drugs and also her unauthorised use of prescribed drugs.

"In a nutshell we submit that she had a guilty secret from her then husband. She did not want him to know of her use of cocaine and that is highly relevant to the case." He said Nigella was "very close" to the sisters, who are both from Bayswater, West London, and deny any wrongdoing.

Mr Metzer added: "The defendants will maintain they were fully aware of her illicit drug use and she would essentially consent to their expenditure on the understanding that there would be no disclosure to her husband.

"It was not the money being spent, Ms Lawson has her own money and is independently wealthy, but what the money was being spent on. Her husband would not have condoned such use.

"They had a tacit understanding that they would not shop her to her husband or the authorities."

He went on: "When it all comes to a head through the accountant's investigation, Ms Lawson is backed into a corner and has to say she did not condone this expenditure.

"She knows that this is would lead inexorably to a disclosure to her husband and the authorities about her drug use, which explains why she is saying she didn't consent."

Judge Johnson told the court: "The defence asserts that Miss Lawson habitually took cocaine and did so on a daily basis - in addition to her abuse of prescription drugs - throughout the defendants' time in the household."

Judge Johnson defence assert habitually to so on a daily to her abu drugs - defendant hold." Nigella's lawyers described the claims as "totally untrue" but cannot comment further while proceedings are active.

Ms Jane Carpenter, for the prosecution, said: "This is a totally scurrilous account which has been raised by the defence, and the timing is no coincidence at all."

She said that despite being arrested more than a year ago and charged in March, the sisters only made the drug claims earlier this month.

The case continues.