Nigella Lawson, 60, Didn't Think She'd 'Be Alive by This Age' After Several Loved Ones Died Young

David Venni/Good Housekeeping Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson is feeling grateful to be alive at age 60.

In the cover story for Good Housekeeping UK's December issue, on sale Wednesday, the British chef and television host said she did not expect to live this long, given the tragic deaths of several loved ones at a young age.

"I’m not a planner – apart from when it comes to food!" Lawson told the outlet. "But to be completely honest, I’ve never been able to take for granted that I’d be alive by this age. My mother died at 48 and my sister at 32. And then John [Diamond, her late husband] at 47."

"So, even if I were the sort of person who planned ahead," Lawson added, "I don’t think I would have seen myself here….I kind of think you can’t do anything about it [ageing] so why complain? I also know what the alternative is, so it feels wrong when you’ve been surrounded by people who have died young to say ‘My hair’s awful, I’ve got to get my roots done’ or ‘My hands look like lizards’. So I don’t dwell on it. As long as you’re healthy, that really is the most important thing.”

Lawson married her first husband, journalist John Diamond, in 1992, five years before he was diagnosed with throat cancer. After battling the disease for four years, Diamond died in 2001. Lawson married her second husband, global advertising executive and art collector Charles Saatchi in 2003. The couple split a decade later.

David Venni/Good Housekeeping Nigella Lawson

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In her interview with Good Housekeeping, Lawson opened up about how she manages to balance her personal life and widely successful career, which includes her upcoming book Cook, Eat, Repeat that combines delectable recipes with personal essays about her life and experiences with food over the years.

"I love what I do, but everything is interspersed with bits of solitude, so maybe that is my balance," she said. "The harder part is the filming. It’s physically very draining standing up all day for seven weeks or so, and there isn’t really room for anything else during that time. It’s a bit frightening and I always think, ‘I don’t know if I can do this again’, but then I start and I get excited again.”

David Venni/Good Housekeeping Nigella Lawson

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With the holidays approaching, Lawson said she's most looking forward to spending quality time with her children, son Bruno, 24, and daughter Cosimo, 26, whom she shared with Diamond.

"I love watching films with them and I enjoy not having things in the timetable," she said. "I’m also a bit clichéd and like having the fire burning and lots of tealights and fairy lights. It’s about turning my home into this cocooning, magical place where it feels a bit different from the rest of the year.”