This Is How Much Nigella Lawson Is Really Worth
Over the course of three decades, Nigella Lawson has built quite a career for herself with a number of best-selling books as well as popular cooking shows of the same titles, such as Nigella Bites and Nigella Feasts. She followed those shows up with even more shows with her name in the title, though instead of opting for Nigella Nibbles (too easy perhaps?) another series was simply... Simply Nigella. Her most recent was 2017's Nigella: At My Table.
What makes these career accomplishments even more impressive is that Lawson is admittingly not a trained chef (via Oakland Tribune). Not graduating from Le Cordon Bleu might not win her any points with actual celebrity chefs, but as Rachel Ray and Guy Fieri have proven, you don't need to be a chef to make bank in the culinary world.
As for Lawson's net worth, well, it's likely in the ballpark of somewhere around $15 million — although this is debatable (via The Richest). Not that Lawson hasn't worked incredibly hard at her career, but considering her upbringing, her millions are hardly the result of a rags-to-riches story.
She comes from a wealthy British family
Nigella Lawson is certainly enjoying the cushy life of a British celebrity these days and grew up in a prominent British household. Nigella is named after her father, Nigel Lawson, a now-retired member of the British parliament who was former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's chancellor of the exchequer (via BBC). He now has the title of "Lord" (via UK Parliament).
Her mother was an heiress to the Lyons Coffee House which helped function as a springboard to her getting her start in the food business. Her great-great-grandfather was a British tobacco king who, when he died, had established a family trust worth £34 million by today's standards. You get the idea... there's a lot of money in the Lawson bloodline.
Nigella still has to work to pay the bills
While Lawson did lose the title of best-selling British food personality to Jamie Oliver in 2018, the fact that she came in second is a testament to just how well her books sell (via MSN). Just because she's sold £50 million worth of books doesn't mean that she doesn't have bills to pay though. She told the Daily Mail in 2018 that after her divorce, she downsized from a £25 million mansion to a £5 million home — with a home loan!
"I had to start my life again at 53, get a mortgage at an age when you're supposed to be paying it all off," Lawson said. "I do have to work. But I only do a TV program every other year. It's not like I'm there all the time."
Considering that Lawson took out a home loan, that estimated $15 million net worth should probably be taken with a grain of salt.