BAKE OFF’S PRUE LEITH
How I found love again in my 70s
GREAT British Bake Off star Prue Leith has told how she was “really lucky” to find new love and get married late in life.
Prue, 78, said her life had been “absolutely wonderful” since she wed retired fashion designer John Playfair, 71, in 2016.
The couple were together for five years before tying the knot, and to begin with both thought dating was enough.
Prue’s first husband, writer Rayne Kruger, had died in 2002 and, although she had a number of relationships, she was happy to remain single.
Plunge
But gradually she and John realised that they needed to take the plunge, the cook revealed in an interview with the November issue of Good Housekeeping.
She said: “It took us five years to decide to do it.
“It just seemed like, ‘We’re so old, what’s the point really?’ Anyhow, we did it. It’s been absolutely wonderful.
“That made me really happy because I’d been single for 14 years – I thought that was it.
“At my age you don’t expect to fall in love again so I have been really lucky.”
South African-born Prue came to London in 1960 to attend the Cordon Bleu Cookery School.
She met her first husband when she was 21 and he was 39 – and married to her mother’s best friend. After a 13-year affair they wed in 1974 and were together until Rayne’s death. Prue credits him with launching her career as a cookery writer and Michelin-starred restaurateur.
She went on: “I had a terrific career in food and married a wonderful man. We had two children, who are still adored. They adore me and we’re very close. Rayne died when he was 80 so he had a really good life.
“But I didn’t think my life was over then. I thought, ‘Right, my life has changed, I’m now going to be a good grandmother’.”
Prue happily confessed she revels in the fame that Bake Off has brought her, saying: “I’m such an egotist – I love the attention. Before Bake Off, frankly, if you’d asked most people on the bus if they’d ever heard of me, it would probably only have been those aged over 55.
“But if they were 15 they wouldn’t have, and that’s the difference with Bake Off – it’s loved across the generations.”
But she admitted that while remaining up for new challenges she has slowed down since her younger days, which amuses her co-stars Paul Hollywood, Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding.
Teased
She said: “I can’t drink as much as I used to. When I was young I could knock off a bottle of wine and then get up in the morning and feel fine. Now if I have more than two glasses I know about it in the morning.
“I’m teased on Bake Off for saying, ‘That’s not worth the calories,’ but that’s because I always think in calories. I’ve been in food so long I’m very aware.”
Read the full interview in Good Housekeeping, on sale today.
PRUE LEITH, the Bake Off presenter, has always done things her way. Now at 78 she talks of the joy of finding love and marrying at an age when many would think that all passion was spent. Hooray for her. She is a role model for all those who truly believe it is never too late.