Nigella Lawson's bombshell Michael Portillo confession: 'Very attractive'

Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has opened up on feeling "shockingly" attracted to Great British Railway Journeys star Michael Portillo in a candid admission. The cooking expert, 65, discussed Portillo's sexuality as she shared that there was something "debauched about him".

Portillo, 70, has been married to his wife Carolyn Eadie for more than 40 years, but the politician-turned-broadcaster's colourful love life has made headlines over the years. Back in 1999, amidst speculation about his sexual orientation, Michael revealed he had some homosexual experiences when he was younger. He discussed this openly during an interview with The Times, stating: "I will say what I want to say. I had some homosexual experiences as a young person." Michael, who was a young history student at Cambridge University back then, spoke from his London home saying: "I am now happily married. That is behind me now."

He added: "I want to make it perfectly clear that all the time I have been in public life there has been nothing of this sort whatsoever. When the interviewer asked me if I had ever had any experiences at university I said yes."

Speaking about Portillo's openness about his sexuality, Nigella wrote in the Guardian: "If the original statement - that he'd had gay affairs in the past, that he did not regret them - seemed admirable, and the initial response to them - not such a big deal and hardly politically damaging - seemed cheering, it isn't.

"Call me naïve, but I really thought that we'd moved into an age where such things didn't matter."

She added: "Who cares? Isn't honesty a better measure of a person's nature than his sexuality ever could be?"

That was when Nigella went on to admit that she had a bit of a thing for the presenter herself. "I'm the only person I know ready to own up to how attractive he is, in a very highly-charged sexual way," she wrote.

She went on to admit: "I'm not surprised when I read now of his rampant, sleep-with-anything-that-moves past.

"When I made a television programme with him once, I felt there was something shockingly, but enticingly, debauched about him."