The thrice-divorced Charles Saatchi once said: ‘If you are a narcissist, as I am, you may find it difficult to hold on to your wives.
‘I never quite comprehend how it is possible to tire of my company, but it clearly is, and with reliable frequency.’
His frank comments were made a year after his divorce from his third wife, Nigella Lawson, which had been sparked by shocking images that showed him with his hand around her throat.
At the time of the 2014 interview, the ad-man turned art collector was in the first throes of his romance with beauty mogul Trinny Woodall.
But if Saatchi perhaps felt optimistic that this relationship would be one he could keep hold of, it seems history was doomed to repeat itself. Now, after ten years together, the couple appear to have gone their separate ways.
Fresh start: Trinny Woodall (left), 59, has spoken of the ‘gruelling’ fresh start that has seen her move out of the home she and Charles Saatchi (right), 20 years her senior, shared
News: Trinny updated her Instagram followers about her new fresh start away from her home with Saatchi
Trinny, 59, has spoken of the ‘gruelling’ fresh start that has seen her move out of the home she and Saatchi, 20 years her senior, shared.
She has seemed increasingly frazzled in recent appearances on her Instagram, where she regularly shares videos to plug her products to her 1.2 million followers.
On March 14 she observed that she had ‘a few gruelling days ahead of me’.
Then, last Friday, she revealed that she had moved house. ‘I have been moving — but now I have moved,’ she told her followers, acknowledging that things had been ‘a bit up and down’ and captioning her post: ‘It’s a new day, it’s a new dawn, it’s a new life. . .’
Over the weekend, she shared posts from a family skiing holiday in France.
An emotional-sounding Trinny revealed that she was spending time in a chalet owned by her family. ‘I have looked out at this view for the last 30 years of my life. It’s the one consistent view I have ever had,’ she said.
‘Recently, with the big life change and moving house, it was important for me to come back here with [daughter] Lyla and family just to have that moment, listen to the birds, be at one with nature. Very healing.’
Asked about the split yesterday, Saatchi said: ‘Sorry, nothing to add.’
Trinny and Saatchi’s romance came after he and Nigella divorced in 2013. Having been pictured with his hands around Nigella’s neck, he accepted a police caution despite arguing that the incident had been no more than a ‘playful tiff’.
Trinny Woodall sparked speculation that she and long-term love Charles Saatchi have split and revealed on Instagram that she has moved
During their romance, one-time stylist Trinny, best known for hit BBC show What Not To Wear, which she co-presented with her friend Susannah Constantine, has launched a hugely successful beauty and make-up empire, Trinny London.
Saatchi, said to be worth around £100 million, is not an investor — though he has played a memorable part in the brand’s promotion.
At the height of the first lockdown, he wandered naked into the bathroom the couple shared, not realising Trinny was in the midst of filming a video about an LED face mask which was being broadcast live on Facebook.
Although Trinny’s personal worth isn’t known, Trinny London has been valued at £180 million and rising.
In an interview in 2021, Trinny said that she had ‘grown up a lot’ during her relationship with Saatchi. ‘I don’t let myself get away with stuff so if I have a kind of outrage he’ll go: “Really, are you kidding?” And then I’ll go upstairs and think: “OK, let me grow up now.”
‘I think that’s what happens when you are with somebody who has been through a lot in their life, and there is nobody who is more supportive of my business and jobs in terms of being my champion.’ The couple started dating in 2013 after Saatchi’s second wife, Kay Hartenstein, reportedly drew up a short list of women Saatchi — who had been single since separating from Nigella — might like to date.
Within three months of their romance starting, Trinny had partly moved into Saatchi’s Chelsea home. In 2014, nine months into their relationship, the couple were pictured sitting at the very same table outside Scott’s restaurant where Saatchi had been seen with Nigella.
Over the course of a three-hour lunch, Trinny was seen wiping away tears as the pair apparently had an argument. Lawyers subsequently denied there had been any falling out.
At the time of the incident with Nigella, Saatchi said that he had just been helping her to ‘focus’.
However, Nigella explained that she had seen a cute baby go past in a pushchair and had remarked that she was looking forward to becoming a grandmother, which had sparked an argument with her husband.
She told a court that he had said to her: ‘I’m the only person you should be concerned with.’
Nigella — who memorably accused Saatchi of ‘intimate terrorism’ — added that her ex-husband had ‘told everyone’ he was actually taking cocaine out of her nose.
Trinny, too, has previously experienced relationship heartbreak. In 2014, her former husband, Johnny Elichaoff, died by suicide, having battled an addiction to painkillers for 20 years.
The pair, who were married for ten years before divorcing in 2009, had a daughter together, Lyla, who is now 19.
In an interview Trinny said: ‘I worry about being a single mother, but I get good counsel from Charles.
‘He has a fabulous daughter, Phoebe, who is incredibly gracious and smart. He’s got a great child because he brought her up well.’
She offered a rare insight into their relationship when she told a podcast in 2021: ‘Any friend who’s known me for years will know I’m the most self-sufficient person they’ve ever met.
‘I know I pay for every single thing in my life, apart from the roof over my head, because I live with Charles. Every element of what I put against business expenses I’m careful of.’
That year, she also revealed that she had taken up smoking again due to a very stressful situation in her personal life.
Whether her fresh start will bring happier times remains to be seen.
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