Nigella Lawson confides to the British court that her ex-husband Charles Saatchi threatens to destroy her reputation through her admitted drug use.

The celebrity chef admitted before the court that she has been using cocaine 'a handful of times' but never on a regular basis that will make her be 'off her head ' with drugs.

Lawson says Saatchi, a wealthy art dealer and advertising mogul, threatens to destroy her reputation if she did not clear his name after he was photographed gripping her by her throat outside Scott's Restaurant in London. That photo was published in newspapers and sites all over the world, and was then followed by a divorce.

"He told everyone that he was taking cocaine out of my nose at Scott's when he knows that is a lie," Lawson said.

"But what actually happened was that somebody walked by with a very cute baby in a stroller and I said, 'I am so looking forward to having grandchildren', and he grabbed me by the throat and said, 'I am the only person you should be concerned with. I am the only person who should be giving.' That is what happened."

"He said to me at the start that if I didn't go back to him and clear his name, he would destroy me."

Lawson was testifying against Italian sisters Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo who were supposedly spending the ex-couple's money on luxurious expenditures withouth their employers' consent. But the trial that day focused more on the couple's failed marriage than on their nannies' fraud.

Last week, the counsel for the accused told the court that there had been an agreement that they could spend what they like, as long as they do not tell anyone about Lawson's drug use.

Speaking of her drug use, Lawson repeatedly insisted that she was not a habitual drug user.

"People who do that are thinner than I am,' Lawson said. "I have never been a drug addict. I have never been a habitual user."

She went on to enumerate the number of times she has taken cocaine. First was when she was dealing with her first husband John Diamond's throat cancer where he eventually succumbed to in 2001.

"I was having a very, very difficult time... A friend of mine offered me some cocaine and I took it," she said. "It completely spooked me."

Lawson alse revealed she had also used cocaine starting in the last year of her marriage to Saatchi.

For his part, Saatchi told the court last Friday that he does not have any knowledge of his ex-wife's drug use.

"It was hearsay," Saatchi said. "I personally have absolutely no knowledge that Nigella has ever taken a drug ever."