Nigella and Ludo 'very close' on The Taste

The TV chef, who is divorced from art tycoon Charles Saatchi, hit it off with married hunk Ludo Lefebvre, 42, while filming the American version of her Channel 4 show last year.

The tattooed chef told The Times newspaper: "Oh Nigella! I feel I have known her for a long time. When I moved to America in 1996, she was on TV and she was so beautiful.

"We have become very, very close. We clicked right away. We are in touch all the time."

[comment] Nigella arriving in court late last year.[/comment]

The father-of-two, who has his own restaurant, Trois Mec in Los Angeles, recorded 'The Taste' with the brunette beauty in Los Angeles and they are now rival judges in the British show, which pulled in 1.8 million viewers last week.

Ludo said it "broke my heart" when Nigella was accused of taking cocaine and cannabis in court where her two assistants, Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo, were cleared of fraud.

He said: "She is so nice and not mean. It broke my heart. She is a celebrity for so many years. Have you ever heard anything like this before? No, because she is a great woman."

Ludo's lawyer wife Kristina, who he lives with in California with their two children, said Nigella described her husband as a "very good-looking younger brother".

The 54-year-old star has just returned from a sunshine break in Grenada, Spain, where she spent time with her daughter Cosima, 20, and tried to forget about the court case and revelations about her marriage to Charles, who has claimed she was a "frequent drug user."