I’D NEED A VE RY BORING DIET TO LOSE ANY WEIGHT

With her hectic lifestyle, Prue often finds herself rushing about so much that she ends up eating on the hoof.

‘I gave a talk at a school last night and they thanked me with the gift of some Marks & Spencer brownies and chocolate cakes,’ she says. ‘And my husband had brought along a miniature bottle of whisky as I love whisky. So that was last night’s supper,’ she laughs.

‘But I’ve always felt I’m a stone overweight. I’m nearly 13 stone and when I first opened my restaurant I was three stone lighter, yet I don’t think I’d like to go down to ten because I’d look haggard. I would dearly like to just lose a stone, though.

‘I don’t eat breakfast, I have a fairly light lunch and I eat dinner early, but that doesn’t lose weight for me like it does for younger people.

‘Maybe it’s because if I have mashed potatoes I have butter with it, and if I have a salad I have dressing.

‘And I always have a couple of glasses of wine — probably half a bottle. So I could obviously lose weight if I made my diet very boring… and if I stopped drinking.’