Nigella Lawson was stopped at Heathrow Airport's boarding gates as she was about to board a flight to the US, thanks to her court confession that she took drugs, reported the Daily Mail.
A ban on the celebrity chef travelling to the US would place her television career - she is a judge on the US talent show The Taste - in peril.
The 54-year-old star confessed under oath last year that she had snorted cocaine and smoked cannabis in front of her children.
Scotland Yard chose not to act on her confession.
Eyewitnesses said Lawson checked in and went through security before being told she could not board the flight to Los Angeles.
The US sometimes bars visitors who have committed drugs offences without ever being charged. The ban may be lifted, but this can take months.
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