Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Prue: I want to keep on going like Mary
Bake Off ‘a real joy’
GREAT British Bake Off judge Prue Leith is putting retirement firmly on a back burner and aims to work into her 80s.
Prue, 77, wants to copy former judge Mary Berry – still going strong at 82.
And she says filming the new series of Bake Off has whetted her appetite for many more years in front of the camera.
Prue told the Sunday Mirror: “I’ve never had so much fun. Mary is still going and she’s five years older than me.
“If I don’t enjoy it I’ll stop. But I do enjoy it, so I would love to be as successful as Mary.”
She dismissed reports that co-judge Paul Hollywood and new hosts Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding lacked chemistry and were distant off-screen. Prue is barred from speaking about the show, which Channel 4 pinched from the BBC.
But she said: “We get on very well and it’s a joy. I’m allowed to say that. It’s true!”
Her new husband, clothing designer John Playfair, 70, added: “Wait until you see Bake Off, She’s wonderfully naughty.”
Prue and John were together for the opening of the Evesham festival of words, near their respective homes in the Cotswolds.
It was recently reported they are to move in together after living separately since marrying last October. But they told us they are still living separately – in bliss.
Prue said: “It’s brilliant, he gets up in the morning, gives me a cup of tea, feeds the dogs, takes them for a walk, then disappears..”
Prue revealed her biggest celebrity disaster was when The Beatles visited one of her restaurants. She said: “They wanted a fry-up. Ringo sent it back – because people kept putting green things on his eggs!”
Great British Bake Off will air later this year.