A new Leith of life
Bake Off Prue becomes gran for fourth time as daughter adopts baby
Li-Da with mum Prue, right, as she is made a CBE BAKE Off star Prue Leith has welcomed her fourth grandchild after her adopted daughter got the go-ahead to take in a child herself.
The chef-turned-TV presenter adopted orphan Li-Da from the Cambodian killing fields in 1975 when she was just 16 months old.
Prue, 79, said it was the best decision she has ever made and is overjoyed that her daughter is going to experience the joys of motherhood.
She said: “I am so fascinated by adoption because my daughter is adopted and she is Cambodian.
“When I adopted her, which was 44 years ago, it was comparatively easy, they checked us out in five seconds.
“Li-Da has spent four years trying to adopt, and now finally last week she has got a baby.”
Prue and her historian ex husband Rayne Kruger, who died in 2002, already had a son, Daniel when Rayne insisted they adopt a child from Asia.
Li-Da’s parents had been murdered by the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.
The baby had initially been adopted from Cambodia by an American couple, but was available because the wife had died suddenly.
Prue said in an earlier interview: “I saw [Rayne’s] point that there were enough children in the world already, but I did worry, ‘Will I ever love an adopted child as much as I love Daniel?’
“But it took just 24 hours with Li-Da to know the answer to ‘who would you save if you could only save one of them?’ was: whichever is nearest.”
Prue has admitted that she did not spend enough time with her two children or her three grandchildren.
The star said: “I was a really selfish parent. It’s a real generational gap.
“By 7pm I wanted the children in bed so I could have a drink and watch telly, while my son and daughter-inlaw are amazing – they will go on playing with their three for ever.
“I’m a terrible granny, always working.” South Africa-born Prue, who is now married to John Playfair, took over from Mary Berry on Great British Bake Off in 2017 after the show’s controversial switch from the BBC to Channel 4. PRUE LEITH ON HER ADOPTED DAUGHTER TAKING IN A CHILD Prue & John Playfair
Which five-day event in May is formally known as the Great Spring Show? 4
Which BBC1 drama was first broadcast on September 6, 1986? 5
Name the USA’s first human spaceflight programme.
Li-Da has been trying to adopt for four years and last week finally got a baby