In a statement released by Phoebe whilst on holiday in Italy, she told the newspaper:
‘The statement is: “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.” That’s it.’
Phoebe was only seven when her father married Nigella in 2003. She grew up mostly living with her father and Nigella, and her stepbrother and sister, fathered by Nigella’s late husband John Diamond.
Prior to the divorce they had all been living together at their £14 million house in Chelsea, West London.
Friends of Nigella have claimed that Saatchi has used his daughter to publicly attack his former wife, but a family friend of the Saatchi party says that it was entirely Phoebe’s own decision to speak out.
“She’s completely devastated that she hasn’t had a phone call from Nigella,’ says the friend”.
“Whatever issues Nigella has with Charles, she doesn’t have them with Phoebe.”
“And on top of this, Phoebe is furious with Nigella for not saying anything to defend her father and just leaving him to hang out to dry.”
Saatchi was infamously photographed two months ago grasping his wife by the throat at Scott’s restaurant in Mayfair. Despite accepting a police caution for assault, the 70-year-old continues to insist that the incident was nothing more than ‘a playful tiff’ and this his actions ‘were not violent’.
Nigella hasn’t been entirely out of touch with Phoebe.
A month after the incident, during Nigella’s filming in America for her television show, it was reported in a Sunday newspaper that she had invited Phoebe to join her and her stepsister and stepbrother in the house she was renting in Los Angeles.
Phoebe did not accept the invitation, telling her stepmother that ‘she didn’t want to be part of her publicity machine’, according to a family friend.
Nigella has declined to comment on matters regarding Phoebe's claim.