I first met Nigella Lawson back in 2018. She wandered barefoot down the tiled hallway of an old Melburnian manor and, just momentarily, a hush settled on the room. It was as if she’d cast the gentlest of spells. Photographers, stylists, caterers, journalists, we were all, for a minute, caught up in her glamour.
“Absolutely,” says Manu Feildel, her co-host on the new season of MKR (formerly My Kitchen Rules). “She walks through the door and the light goes on. She sparkles.”
Glamour. It’s an old Scottish word, originally intended to convey a supernatural, spellbinding beauty – the quality possessed by sirens in Greek myth or the girls from Beauxbatons in Harry Potter books.
When I mention the Beauxbatons girls to Nigella, she laughs, a very mortal, throaty chuckle. And suddenly the spell is broken, everyone relaxes. Because that is another of Nigella’s gifts – making those around her feel seen, welcome, comfortable.
“It’s not her gorgeousness (powerful magnet though that is) that’s the secret of the affection the readers and viewers have for her,” an old friend, historian Simon Schama, once wrote in The Financial Times. “It’s her deep well of authentic, unstuffy friendliness.”
And that unstuffiness stops her from taking her celebrity (she is famously one of very few British celebrities who need only a single name) too seriously. “I get embarrassed by too much fuss and attention,” she says, quite honestly, “because in a way it’s a distorting lens. We’re all just people, and that’s where we connect. You want to bond with people at that level.”
Bu hikaye The Australian Women's Weekly dergisinin August 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye The Australian Women's Weekly dergisinin August 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Maggie's kitchen
Maggie Beer's delicious veg patties - perfect for lunch, dinner or a snack - plus a simple nostalgic pudding with fresh passionfruit.
Reclaim your brain
Attention span short? Thoughts foggy? Memory full of gaps? Brigid Moss investigates the latest ways to sharpen your thinking.
The girls from Oz
Melbourne music teacher Judith Curphey challenged the patriarchy when she started Australia's first all-girls choir. Forty years later that bold vision has 6500 members, life-changing programs and a new branch of the sisterhood in Singapore.
One kid can change the world
In 2018, 10-year-old Jack Berne started A Fiver for a Farmer to raise funds for drought relief. He and mum Prue share what happened next.
AFTER THE WAVE
Twenty years ago, the Boxing Day tsunami tore across the Indian Ocean, shredding towns, villages and holiday resorts, and killing hundreds of thousands of people from Indonesia to Africa. Three Australians share their memories of terror, loss and survival with The Weekly.
PATRICIA KARVELAS How childhood tragedy shaped me
Patricia Karvelas hustled hard to chase her dreams, but it wasn't easy. In a deeply personal interview, the ABC host talks about family loss, finding love, battles fought and motherhood.
Ripe for the picking
Buy a kilo or two of fresh Australian apricots because they're at their peak sweetness now and take inspiration from our lush recipe ideas that showcase this divine stone fruit.
Your stars for 2025
The Weekly’s astrologer, Lilith Rocha, reveals what’s in store for your astrological sign in 2025. For your monthly horoscope, turn to page 192.
MEL SCHILLING Cancer made me look at myself differently'
One year on from going public with her bowel cancer diagnosis, Mel Schilling reveals where she's at with her health journey and how it's changed her irrevocably.
Nothing like this Dame Judi
A few weeks before her 90th birthday, the acting legend jumped on a phone call with The Weekly to talk about her extraordinary life – and what’s still to come.