Dame Prue Leith has given fans insights into her personal life after speaking on a podcast with Holly Rubenstein. The accomplished chef has been our screens for a long time, appearing on a number of TV shows.
The Great British Bake Off star opened up on her feelings about the older years of her life. She spoke to the podcast host about wanting to cherish every moment with her husband, John Playfair.
On the The Travel Diaries podcast, Dame Prue said: “I haven’t got much longer, I’m 85, I want to spend as much time as I can with him.” She said she relies on her husband’s support when travelling the world for her career, reports Wales Online.
Chatting on the podcast, Dame Prue explained why John’s support is so important as she admitted: “If we are filming abroad, or like next week, we’re going to New York, because I’ve got to publicise the American baking show, then I’m now old enough for my agent to say ‘I’m sorry, but she has to ring her husband, because she’s 85, she needs someone to carry the bags’ she doesn’t quite say ‘she needs a carer’ but it’s pretty close.”
The TV star has regularly spoken out about her husband and the bond the two have. The 85-year-old married her husband in 2016.
She shared with listeners: “One of the wonderful things about him is that he is totally without ego, he doesn’t feel threatened by the fact that I have a higher profile than he does.
“When I introduce him (to people) he always just says ‘I’m the handbag carrier, I’m her chauffeur’.” While she may have discussed the intense side of her cooking career, she has enjoyed many extraordinary experiences throughout her life.
Dame Prue’s illustrious career in the culinary world began at the age of 20 when she enrolled at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School. At the age of 29, she had opened her own restaurant ‘Leith’s’ in the Notting Hill area of London.
It wasn’t long before Dame Prue was on TV screens, she took on the role as a judge on the Great British Bake Off in 2017, after stepping into the shoes of Dame Mary Berry. She has since stepped down from the role.
Last year, it came to light that Prue had decided to concentrate on the main series, opting out of the celebrity specials. Her replacement will be Caroline Waldegrave OBE, who happens to be one of her friends.
Caroline, also known as Lady Waldegrave of North Hill, co-founded Leith’s School of Food and Wine with Prue. Caroline has co-authored several cookbooks, including Leith’s Cookery Bible and Leith’s Seasonal Bible.
In a chat with This Morning last year, Prue confirmed she wasn’t leaving the show permanently but was finding the demanding filming schedule tough to keep up with, hence her decision to step down from the celebrity edition.
She shared: “These things are filmed back-to-back all the way through summer from April to August so you don’t get any time off. I’m getting quite old and there’s places I want to see. So I’m not doing this year’s.”
Prue Leith expressed her candid thoughts on aging earlier this year on Loose Women, stating, “old age stinks”. She elaborated, “It takes me 10 minutes to get myself out of bed in the morning. If I don’t do the exercises I can’t move. There’s all sorts of things that are wrong with old age.”