'People like me because I'm fat'

It is a secret long realised by her male fans. Now Nigella Lawson has finally seen the light - her popularity has a great deal to do with her curves.

'I don't pretend to know why I am popular as a TV cook, but I do have a theory about why women like to see me, and that's because I'm not thin,' she said.

'And men - I don't believe that men like to watch thin girls.'

But, although British TV viewers have embraced her full-figured form, the 45-year-old admits she was nervous she would not receive the same reception in America when her show, Nigella Bites, was launched there in 2001.

'I was afraid to go to New York - New Yorkers are so thin,' Miss Lawson explained. 'I was always afraid they would say, "If I had a bum like yours, I wouldn't show it on TV".' The Domestic Goddess, a mother of two and wife of millionaire Charles Saatchi, is happy with her body - and has no plans to change it.

'I love eating,' she said.' Sometimes I think, "My God, I should stop shovelling food in". Everybody feels that sometimes.

'But you know what it is? Long ago I decided that I didn't want to be very thin.

'And once you've taken that decision, you're a lot more relaxed about life.'