If You’ve Ever Wondered What ‘Victim Blaming’ Was, Read The Daily Mail Piece On Nigella Lawson’s Allegedly Abusive Husband
If you’ve ever been confused as to what the term “victim-blaming” means, read the Daily Mail’s feature on Charles Saatchi today and you’ll get a pretty clear grasp. I’ve never read such an enormous load of victim-blaming, abuser-glorifying garbage in all of my life.
Charles Saatchi is the billionaire husband of celebrity chef Nigella Lawson. Less than a month ago, he made headlines by being an abusive piece of shit grasping Nigella’s neck several times during a brunch outing in London. Witnesses were shocked by the violent behavior that left Nigella in tears. Photographers caught the abuse on camera.
He’s since denied allegations of abuse, claiming they were just having a “playful tiff.” That makes sense. Most playful tiffs start with choking and end with someone walking off in tears, don’t they? Well, apparently their marriage has been unravelling since he was exposed. Nigella is allegedly avoiding him, so he did what any disgraced, allegedly-abusive billionaire would do. He issued a statement announcing their divorce to the Daily Mail. He also took the opportunity to make several more excuses for putting his hands around her throat:
I am dissappointed that she was advised to make no public comment to explain that I abhor violence of any kind against women and have never abused her physically in any way. The row photographed at Scott’s restaurant could equally have been Nigella grasping my neck to hold my attention – as indeed she has done in the past…
I must stress again, my actions were not violent. We are instinctively tactile people. Yes, my hands were around her neck and they had been touching her arm… there was no pressure applied to her. It was merely a gesture.
I am sorry that we had a row. I am sorry that she was upset…
Sorry, but this is textbook abusive behavior; “apologize” but at the same time make excuses for your behavior, shift the blame onto the person you have abused, and throw in some guilt trip for good measure. Gross.
The Daily Mail piece gets even more vile as they shift the subject of the article from Saatchi’s abuse to an article about how the same qualities that may be perceived as “abusive” also make him an all-around great guy and fantastic businessman:
From the start the relationship was overtly even oddly physical. A friend says: ”˜Charles and Nigella have always been very physical and demonstrative.
”˜They’re incredibly tactile. What people who don’t know them don’t realise is just how physical they are with each other.’
But Saatchi was not an easy man to live with. The Iraqi-born businessman could not have built Saatchi & Saatchi into the largest ad agency in the world, alongside his brother Maurice, without ruthless drive.
He can be difficult, he’s never pretended otherwise. It’s often the way with brilliant men. It’s true Nigella is scared of his temper and of him lashing out verbally, but she’s never been frightened of him physically.
While he does not resent her success, there is little denying that living with a global phenomenon has taken its toll.
They’ve always been “physical” so that excuses him putting his hands around her throat? He can be “difficult?” Living with a successful woman has can be emasculating, so we shouldn’t be surprised that he has to dominate her physically in public?
I’m done. I just can’t even.
(photo: Joe Seer/ Shutterstock)
