The multi-millionaire art collector had been spotted by the Sunday People meeting literary editor Susanna Gross at the same restaurant where he grabbed Lawson by the throat and sparked worldwide controversy, the Mirror reported.

A pal of the former public relations genius said it’s as if Saatchi views his wife like “a piece of art which has lost value” and which “he wants to move out of his warehouse”.

Lawson, 53, is planning to stand up for herself in a warts-and-all US TV interview on primetime American television.