Judge Prue Leith of Bake Off says that she doesn’t regret voting for Brexit, even though it was targeted by internet trolling.
The TV star reveals she felt ‘powerless’ when she was attacked for her views – but still believes that leaving the EU ‘in the long term is a good thing’.
Recalling the criticism she received at the time of the 2016 referendum, she says: ‘Being trolled is absolutely awful because you are so powerless. This is a common statement, but it’s true. This is not something you can argue.
‘I was advised – and I think correctly – to do nothing, don’t give it oxygen, all you’ll do is reignite the people who hate you. The problem went away after I did nothing. It didn’t last very long, and it didn’t upset me for very long.’
She also tells today’s BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs that while she is still supportive of Brexit, some of the issues it has created – such as a shortage of migrant labour for the hospitality sector – could have been tackled sooner.
Judge Prue Leith of Bake Off says that she doesn’t regret voting for Brexit, even though being attacked by online trolls
‘I haven’t actually regretted it [voting for Brexit] because I still think long-term it’s a good thing,’ she says.
‘But I voted because I thought that we ought to be making our own decisions. And the only things that I have been disappointed by – and they are disappointing – is obviously I think we were not quick enough to realise just how difficult it would be to get staff.
‘I think we should let people in if we need them in the trade.’
The 81-year-old has been supportive of The Mail on Sunday’s campaign to prevent the UK being flooded with inferior food in the wake of post-Brexit trade deals.
She says: ‘The other thing I am still anxious about is I think we have very good food standards in this country, and I have always thought that we shouldn’t be allowed to make a deal that breaches our own rules.’
Prue was born in South Africa and moved to London in 1960. In London, she opened her first Michelin Starred restaurant nine years later. Prue gained a new audience when she succeeded Mary Berry in The Great British Bake Off 2017.
During tastings, she has often commented on whether it is ‘worth the calories’ but says she is reconsidering the phrase following concerns by eating disorder experts.
‘It’s just an expression of how much I love something – “This is worth every calorie”, I’ll say, “Yum”,’ she tells host Lauren Laverne. ‘I think Beat, they are a charity that try to tackle eating disorders, and they say that I mustn’t say it because people then who have an eating disorder feel guilty, they feel unhappy, so they eat more. So perhaps I’ll stop saying it.’
The TV star reveals she felt ‘powerless’ when she was attacked for her views – but still believes that leaving the EU ‘in the long term is a good thing’
Additionally, she says she did not hesitate to consult Dame Mary before accepting the Bake Off job.
‘I asked her what [fellow judge] Paul Hollywood was like,’ she recalls. ‘She said, “He’s fine.”… You have to hold your own because he is very articulate.’
Prue caused controversy by accidentally tweeting her congratulations for Sophie Faldo in 2017, just before the finale of the series was aired. The time difference was misunderstood by Prue, who was actually on holiday in Bhutan.
Although the tweet was removed in 89 seconds it went viral.
While she ‘felt so terrible’ about the blunder, she reveals that she received a congratulatory call from the Prime Minister of Bhutan because her gaffe had put the country ‘on the map’.
Speaking candidly about her 13-year affair with future husband Rayne Kruger while he was still married to Nan, one of her mother’s closest friends, she says: ‘Nobody knew about our affair, so I was still great friends with all of his family and indeed his wife, who I adored.
‘Although this was absolutely deceitful, I could no more have walked away from him than flown to the moon. I was completely in love with him.’
After Rayne’s divorce, Prue fell pregnant with her son Danny Kruger, now a Conservative MP.
‘I wanted a baby really badly and I did become pregnant so we then told Nan that we had fallen in love and that we’re going to have a baby, which must have been appalling for her because of course she had no idea,’ she says.
‘What we didn’t tell her was that we had been in love for 13 years… I am not at all proud of the fact that I was an adulteress for all that time.’
- Desert Island Discs airs on BBC Radio 4 this morning at 11 a.m. and will repeat at 9 a.m. on Friday.