The Grillo sisters came into Nigella Lawson’s life quite by chance. She and her late husband John Diamond asked an employment agency if they could hire a babysitter. It sent Lisa Grillo, then a shy 19-year-old.
That one-off arrangement became a 22-year relationship that endured through Diamond’s illness and death, and Nigella’s remarriage to Charles Saatchi.
In the end, Lisa and her sister Francesca Grillo would become Nigella’s ‘work family’. She regarded them as indispensable. They became like parents to Nigella’s two children with Diamond – Cosima, now 19, and Bruno, 17 – and Saatchi’s daughter from his previous marriage, Phoebe, now 18.
The Grillos’ oldest sister, Anna, who still lives in Italy, told the Mail that they particularly regarded Nigella’s children Bruno and Mimi as their own. ‘They raised them,’ she said.
The assistants gave the Domestic Goddess recipes from their Italian homeland. They shopped, cooked and cleaned.
How badly things turned out. Their trial was nominally for fraud, but by exposing the details of the couple’s opulent lifestyle, the Grillos managed to turn the case into a trial of Nigella and Saatchi. And they knew all the details of the couple’s life.
The intimacy between them was such that when the celebrity cook briefly left Saatchi a year before their eventual split, she moved with Francesca to a house in Battersea, before returning to her husband’s home in Chelsea. In short, they were the lynchpins of the Lawson-Saatchi household.
One wonders, then, what Nigella will make of our revelation that Lisa, 41, and Francesca, 34, were born into a Mafia family.
The sisters are from Calabria in the ‘toe’ of Italy. Their father, Michele, was a prominent member of the Mob. Indeed, he was named by a supergrass as a member of the ‘Ndrangheta – the Calabrian version of the Mafia, similarly made up of lots of connected families. The supergrass called him a ‘man of standing’ within the group.
The ‘Ndrangheta specialises in supplying cocaine, but was notorious for involvement in numerous kidnappings in the 1970s and 1980s.
Michele Grillo spent much of his daughters’ childhood incarcerated. He was investigated for racketeering and extortion, and was convicted of kidnapping the sister of a well-known Italian fashion designer in 1981.
Tulia Kauten was snatched from her car and held by Grillo and his associates for four terrifying months before a ransom of 400,000 euros was paid. For his part in the crime, he spent 15 years in prison. Today, he lives in Milan where he runs a respectable haulage business.
His brother, Domenico, said Lisa and Francesca had originally come to the UK because ‘with their father in prison there was not much money at home. And in Calabria there is no work for them’.
He added: ‘Their father was in prison for a long time. But these were the mistakes of youth. This all happened when he was young. He’s a changed man now. We all make our choices in life.’ Though Lisa and Francesca made choices of their own, and rapidly embraced a lifestyle of champagne and designer clothes, their origins are humble indeed.
They were raised in Plati, a poor rural town which can only be approached by a single twisting road. Local police say it is the poorest in Italy, with declared earnings of zero.
According to the Carabinieri, Italy’s military police, 90 per cent of the population – who are all closely related – have a criminal record.
Goats and horses graze on the streets. An unfinished road stops in the centre of town. There is nothing fancy about the Grillos’ old family home in Plati, where their sister Anna lives. Built by their father, it has stone floors and raw brick walls.
Michele Grillo told the Mail: ‘I was sent down when I was young. I was hanging around with some ugly company and was coerced into the kidnapping. But after prison I was a changed man. I have paid my debt to society.
Fury: Nigella Lawson, pictured leaving Isleworth Crown Court, has lashed out at the court system and her ex-husband
‘I’m devastated that my daughters have now run into problems with the law. I wish I could protect them. We couldn’t be there at the trial because I have to work, and my wife, Maria, is ill.’
He added: ‘We speak all the time. Last night, Lisa was crying as she watched [the trial] on the news, because she was sad for Nigella. Not for herself. She loves her.
‘They did everything for the Signora and her children and they were so close to her all that time when John Diamond was dying.
‘But after 14 years the Signora has turned on them. I never want to hear her name again.
‘We have always sent presents back to Nigella – food mostly, Calabrian salami, jams, local specialities. And this is how she repays us.’
Neighbours said the three daughters were brought up as if they were boys – raised to have a certain drive and toughness.
Lisa left school at 14 and set out to make her way in the world. Arriving at the Shepherd’s Bush home of John Diamond and Nigella Lawson must have been a considerable challenge.
By the time she started working for them, Diamond was seriously ill with cancer. Not everyone would have the resilience to stay in those circumstances, but Lisa did.
Anna Grillo said simply: ‘[Nigella and Diamond] loved her and they respected her.’
Nigella herself said in court: ‘I loved Lisa, my children loved Lisa. She came to me at a very difficult time in my life.’
There was absolute trust between the TV cook and her assistants, according to their sister Anna.
‘The children came here to Plati after John died to give Nigella some time and to get them away from all the mourning,’ she said.
Not guilty: Elisabetta Grillo, 41 (left) and her sister Francesca (right) leave court today after their acquittal
‘We took them to the zoo where they have all the native animals from this area and to the beach. They came back a second time about two years later.’
She added: ‘[My sisters] see the children as their own. They raised them, cared for them. They wanted to protect them when they went out, they gave them advice.’
Alarm bells soon began to ring within Nigella’s set about how close the Grillos had become to her – she even dipped into her own savings to give Lisa £7,000 for cosmetic dentistry to improve her confidence.
But Nigella wouldn’t be moved to get rid of them.
One friend alleges that her father, Nigel Lawson, always disliked the Grillos and was worried that Nigella had let them get too close.
Charles Saatchi was also not a fan. It is said that when the Grillos’ extended family came to the UK, Saatchi told Nigella they needed to find another place to stay.
Despite his wife’s attachment to them, he simply did not want them in his home.
Verdict: The sisters were cleared of fraud after a dramatic three-week trial (artist's impression of the jury)
A friend of the former couple said: ‘I was appalled that Nigella allowed these two sisters to run everything for her kids … it got so bad at one stage that the sisters were giving wads of cash to the children obtained from the credit cards that Charles had given them.’
The bonds between the cook and her assistants grew even closer when Francesca dated one of Nigella’s friends. Lisa became engaged to one of Nigella’s other friends, but seemed to date other men too. The family friend said: ‘They were very sassy, very outgoing. They had been there to look after the children, but ended up being her party crew as well.’
Nigella told the court that the relationship with the Grillos soured over more prosaic matters. Lisa left the job in 2007. When she returned after a period of unemployment, Nigella reported that she had been resentful and spent most of her time on Facebook.
Francesca Grillo (pictured), now 34, came to the UK after her sister Lisa started working for Miss Lawson
Meanwhile huge sums were being spent every month on luxury items and holidays, and the home was awash with cash.
Naturally, Anna Grillo has a different take on events. The way she tells it, her sisters were turned on for no reason.
Through tears, she said: ‘Lisa was always at home, cleaning – she did everything. She was like a slave. She worked more or less seven days a week, nights as well.’
She added: ‘They were only told at the last minute just before their holidays or just before Christmas if they could take time off because they had to fit in with Nigella and Charles’ schedules.’
Their uncle Domenico agreed, saying: ‘It doesn’t make any sense. They’ve been with the family so many years.
‘If I have a workman who’s no good, I get rid of him straightaway. These girls were never in trouble.’ But the job certainly had its perks.
It is beyond question that the Grillo sisters enjoyed the high life. In a video posted on Lisa’s Facebook account in 2008, she is seen drifting approvingly around a five-star hotel room at the Ritz in Paris, showing off the TV in the bathroom and the champagne on her table.
On her salary of £25,000 a year, such luxuries would have been beyond reach. The explanation? That Nigella had okayed it all.
When the unauthorised spending came to light, however, it was Nigella who insisted on calling the police. Friends of Saatchi’s said that she was insistent about casting them off and that she said they had betrayed her.
In an email sent to Nigella and Saatchi in October, just after the court case began, Francesca and Lisa pleaded: ‘We never meant in any way to seem to be disloyal or to seem like we took advantage of our positions.
‘We truly believe that we had a bond like a family. You were, as you often said to us, our English family, and we saw you like a mother and father figure in our lives.’
PM's praise for Nigella that almost wrecked the trial
David Cameron said he was on 'Team Nigella' shortly before an EU summit - but he was rebuked by the judge
David Cameron almost derailed the trial of Nigella Lawson’s former housekeepers by telling a magazine he was on ‘Team Nigella’.
It can now be reported that defence barristers spent an entire morning arguing that the Prime Minister’s intervention in support of Miss Lawson, a key prosecution witness, was so significant the trial should be abandoned.
They argued that Mr Cameron, the most powerful man in Britain, had effectively given Miss Lawson ‘a character reference’, which could sway the jury.
Judge Robin Johnson treated the call with extreme seriousness, weighing up the claim that it would be impossible for Lisa and Francesca Grillo to receive a fair trial.
He also issued an extraordinary rebuke to the Prime Minister, reported at the time, saying it was a matter of ‘regret’ that he chose to respond when asked about Miss Lawson during an interview with The Spectator magazine while the trial was ongoing.
The interview was conducted by editor Fraser Nelson, who wrote: ‘I ask a question I feel sure he’ll dodge: about the trial of Charles Saatchi’s former housemaids and the revelation that his ex-wife, Nigella Lawson, used cocaine.
‘Her fans have rushed to her defence: “Team Nigella” is used as a hashtag on Twitter and even sprayed on city walls. Is the Prime Minister on Team Nigella?
Mobbed: Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo surrounded by security as they left Isleworth Crown Court today
‘“I am,” he says. “I’m a massive fan, I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting her a couple of times and she always strikes me as a very funny and warm person. Nancy [his daughter, nine] and I sometimes watch a bit of Nigella on telly. Not in court, I hasten to add”.’
It can now be reported that Lisa Grillo’s barrister, Anthony Metzer QC, told the judge on Thursday of last week that the effect of Mr Cameron’s observations on the jury was immeasurable.
He also said Mr Cameron should have known better, because his older brother is a QC or ‘silk’.
Mr Metzer said: ‘The journalist was making it clear he was asking a question about the trial – he did not expect a clear response because this is in the middle of a trial where Miss Lawson’s evidence is very much at issue …
‘But the Prime Minster offers a direct answer. He is commenting about Miss Lawson’s credibility.
‘One can assume the Prime Minister – whose elder brother is a leading silk – would have some familiarity with the court process and would understand that commenting on leading witnesses in a trial would be something that would be considered surprising.
‘Miss Lawson’s credibility is absolutely central to this case. The Prime Minister is essentially saying the course of a trial that she is somebody that he would endorse, and Miss Lawson is getting a character reference from someone who is respected and high up.’
Mr Cameron told The Spectator magazine he was on Team Nigella, which was also the name Miss Lawson's closest aides (pictured) gave to themselves
Francesca Grillo’s barrister, Karina Arden, said: ‘The damage is done. It makes it impossible for my client to receive a fair trial
‘The man in the street will say “the Prime Minister likes Miss Lawson”, so there’s a real risk the jury will be influenced by the fact he likes Miss Lawson.’
Judge Johnson agreed the matter was serious, but eventually decided he could deal with it by warning the jury to ignore the Prime Minister’s comments.
He told jurors: ‘The reason for the delay this morning is that I have been taken through a large number of press reports.
‘They centre on the Prime Minister commenting about a prosecution witness, Miss Lawson, during an interview with a journalist.
‘It is of regret when people in public office comment about a person who is involved in a trial that is in progress.
‘The defendants feel aggrieved – not without justification. You will realise that what public figures feel about this case or witnesses in this case will have no bearing on things you have to decide.’
He added: ‘I am sorry that much court time has been taken on this topic – and I don’t fault the defence for raising it.
‘I’m only sorry that it has had the effect of wasting almost an entire morning of court time which should have been devoted to evidence.’
He also banned any reporting of the bid to abandon the whole trial until its conclusion yesterday.
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