22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
GBBO's Prue Leith's 'horrific' experience 'put her off TV' for years
GBBO's Prue Leith's 'horrific' experience 'put her off TV' for years
Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has admitted there was one particular experience that put her off working in television for years before she changed her mind
Prue Leith has said one experience put her off TV work for years
Prue Leith has confessed that a past experience deterred her from pursuing a career in television for many years.
Despite being a household name today, there was a period when Great British Bake Off judge Prue, 85, shied away from TV work following a unpleasant stint.
Speaking to Candis, she revealed that her time presenting a show for Tyne Tees, aimed at women at home, left her with no desire to return to full-time television work, except for occasional appearances, reports Bristol Live.
Prue elaborated: "I had hated television ever since my horrific appearance at Tyne Tees. I was presenting an afternoon show aimed at women at home.
"With no previous presenting experience, it would be fair to say I wasn't a natural. I was very bad at it and didn't enjoy it at all.
"I think it died a death. That experience put me off so I didn't do any more telly for years. I was occasionally asked to do the odd thing and chose not to accept."
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"I limited my TV appearances to a couple of guest appearances in documentaries during the 1980s on topics that interested me."
Prue Leith is now a staple of cooking TV
However, Prue's perspective on television work reportedly shifted in the early 2000s following the death of her husband Rayne. In the wake of this personal tragedy, she joined the presenting team on the Great British Menu, a role which Prue admitted she "loved" and remained in for over a decade.
Reflecting on her television resurgence, Prue has expressed surprise at her popularity across the pond. She shared: "I've been visiting New York and LA in the last two years to do my own show.
"If I walked through Chelsea in New York, I'm stopped all the time because they get a double dose of the series, both US and the UK original versions. I get asked if I am that lady from the baking show."
Prue has been a mainstay on Bake Off since 2017, but it was recently announced that she would not be participating in the celebrity edition of the programme, choosing instead to spend more time with her husband John Playfair, whom she married in 2016, and discussing how travel has changed for her.
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Prue Leith and John Playfair
Speaking on The Travel Diaries podcast, Prue said: "I haven't got much longer. I'm 85 and I want to spend as much time as I can with him.
"If we are filming abroad, or like next week, we're going to New York, because I've got to publicise the American baking show, then I'm now old enough for my agent to say 'I'm sorry, but she has to ring her husband, because she's 85, she needs someone to carry the bags'."
