Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has revealed she won’t leave her two children, Cosima, 31, and Bruno, 28, anything from her estimated £20 million fortune. The British food writer and television cook, 65, has children from her marriage to the late journalist John Diamond, who passed away in 2001 from throat cancer.
The sultry foodie, who is as famed for her irresistible recipes and as her purring innuendos, and routinely topping “sexiest celebrity chef” rankings throughout her career, grew up in privilege as the daughter of former Conservative chancellor Nigel Lawson. The multi-millionaire began her career as a reporter and food critic but in 1998 released her first cookery book, How to Eat, which sold 300,000 copies and became a best-seller.
Making the comments when she was married to her ex-husband, the multi-millionaire art collector Charles Saatchi, back in 2008, Nigella discussed what she hoped her kids would learn from her. She told My Weekly: “To know that I am working and that you have to work in order to earn money. I am determined that my children should have no financial security.”
She went on: “It ruins people not having to earn money. I argue with my husband, Charles, because he believes that you should be able to leave money to your children. I think we’ll have to agree to disagree.”
Nigella isn’t the only celeb who has said they won’t be leaving all of their wealth to their kids. Elton John confessed that although his two sons will be financially secure, they won’t be getting everything. He said, “Of course, I want to leave my boys in a very sound financial state, but it’s terrible to give kids a silver spoon. It ruins their life.”
“…you have to have some semblance of normality, some respect for money, some respect for work. I came from a very working-class family and was born in a council estate house. I earned everything I did from hard work, and that’s the way they’ve got to do it as well. They have to do chores in the house – take their plates to be cleaned, help in the kitchen, tidy their rooms and help in the garden, and each time they do they get a little star to put on these charts they’ve made. They understand they need to do these things, and they enjoy it.”
