Stepdaughter calls Nigella Lawson cold-hearted

Nigella Lawson has been tagged as cold-hearted by her stepdaughter, who claims that the celebrity chef abandoned her since splitting from her father Charles Saatchi.

The 53-year-old split from advertising mogul Saatchi in June, after photographs emerged showing him grabbing Lawson's throat during an argument over lunch at a restaurant here. Their divorce came through in July.

"Nigella has not spoken to me since she left our house on that Sunday when the newspaper story appeared. She has behaved in a very cold-hearted way. She has been my mother since I was seven or eight and has just abandoned me," Phoebe, 18, told Britain's Daily Mail newspaper.

Mark Hutchinson, a spokesman for Lawson, has refused to comment on this, saying: "We continue not to comment on personal matters."