Great British Bake Off star Prue Leith, 86, has opened up about thinking of death daily after quitting the show to spend more time with husband John Playfair
Dame Prue Leith has candidly revealed that death “crosses my mind several times a day” whilst discussing a heartbreaking family loss. The 86-year-old recently stepped down from her position as a judge on The Great British Bake Off after nine years on the programme.
Prue acknowledges she “hasn’t got much longer left” and is keen to dedicate more quality time to her husband John Playfair. The renowned baker has even started bringing John, 71, along when work commitments require her to travel, jokingly suggesting he’s “pretty close” to becoming her “carer”.
Prue reveals that since entering her eighties, thoughts of mortality keep “inserting” themselves into her daily life.
In conversation with the Mail Online, she explained: “I never thought about death at all, but now, in my eighties, it crosses my mind several times a day – not deliberately, just inserting itself into everything.”
Prue confessed she regularly catches herself pondering “how many more summers have I got” and questioning whether to renew her television commitments. She characterises these as “fleeting thoughts” which “don’t trouble her,” though she recognises she hasn’t “got much time left”
This realisation has prompted Prue to embrace life more fully. It resulted in Prue experiencing a spectacular summer getaway to Uzbekistan, where she explored the historic Silk Road alongside John.
Prue characterised the journey as the holiday of a lifetime. She reveals that wanting proper summer holidays, rather than spending them filming Bake Off, ultimately influenced her choice to leave the programme.
Speaking to the Spectator, she revealed: “I suddenly realised that if I don’t give up Bake Off, I’ll never again have a holiday in the south of France, in Italy, in Spain, or even in Cornwall or Scotland.”
Whilst she’s looking forward to enjoying her time away from the programme, Prue admits she’s “anxious” about facing a similar fate to her brother David. After receiving a bone cancer diagnosis, Prue recalls David enduring “three weeks out of four in agony” before his death in 2012.
This harrowing experience led Prue to become an advocate for assisted dying, having witnessed David “begging to die”. She explained to the Mail: “I want to save my family having to go through the horrors of watching me die slowly, especially as I am unlikely to be a brave sufferer.
“David died in his seventies from bone cancer, a particularly horrible disease because it doesn’t kill you: you have to wait for the cancer to spread to an organ for that.”
However, Prue’s stance on assisted dying has created tension with her son, Danny Kruger, the Reform UK MP for East Wiltshire. According to Prue, Danny fears “the law will inevitably be widened” to allow anyone to request death, including those suffering temporary depression or even youngsters.
She characterised Danny as a “formidable opponent,” though she maintains his worries are “unfounded”. If Prue were to receive a diagnosis of an illness resulting in a “slow and excruciating death,” she’d rather spend quality time with family and pass away on her own terms.
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