INTERVIEW

At 82, Bake Offjudge Dame Prue Leith is not only embarking on a one-woman tour, she's also joining the US version ofthe TV baking show. Here she shares her memories of The Queen, and discusses falling in love in later life

by LOUISE GANNON

In the days before we meet, Dame Prue Leith has braved a force eight gale crossing the Atlantic from New York on a cruise ship, a row with her husband about his books covering the coffee table, and the news Matt Lucas is to leave The Great BritishBake Off.

She is - regardless of this - in very high spirits. The gale barely bothered her, even though she is 'terrified of the sea' ('I was lucky to be part of a literary festival and, frankly, I hardly noticed it because the ship's stabilisers were so marvellous'). And the row with her husband - the 75-year-old former fashion designer John Playfair - is, she says with a throaty laugh, 'a weekly occurrence'.

'I like the coffee table kept neat and tidy, but he just loves secondhand books, which find their way all over it. He's messy, I'm organised, but that's the way we are.' Matt Lucas is, however, more of a blow. The former Little Britain stardid tell her of his departure before the news broke. Tm very, very sad he's leaving,' she says. 'I totally understand why, because Bake Off takes up four months of the year and he's extraordinarily talented and wants to do more writing, more theatre.'

So does she have anyone in mind to take over co-presenting alongside Noel Fielding? 'Not a clue,' she says brightly. 'Although who wouldn't want to work on Bake Off? It's the best job on television. It absolutely changed my life.'

Since Prue took over from Mary Berry in 2017, as a judge alongside Paul Hollywood, her fortunes - like a good cake - have been on the rise. But she feared she would be fired following her first-ever series, after accidentally tweeting the name of the winner, Sophie Faldo, before it had been announced. Her mortification is apparent five years on. The tweet was hastily deleted within seconds, but social media was already alight with recriminations. 'I thought I'd be sacked,' she says, shaking her head. 'I was ready to be told to go because I felt I deserved to after that, but thankfully that didn't happen.'