Dame Prue Leith, 86, has revealed her biggest life regret: not making time to build friendships, which she says left her feeling "bloody lonely" after her first husband died. The former Great British Bake Off judge, who left the Channel 4 show last year, spoke about the issue ahead of a new travel series with her best friend Sandi Toksvig.
Regret over neglected friendships
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Leith admitted she had regretted not making more effort to form friendships and said she had felt lonely in the past. She described former Bake Off host Sandi Toksvig as a friend who "you could call at two in the morning, and she'd be there for you", adding: "It's Sandi. And now Debbie, her wife. I've been very bad at friendship."
She added: "I never thought it was important. If someone had said, 'You don't have any friends,' I'd have said, 'What do we need friends for?' It didn't occur to me it was unwise."
First marriage and loneliness
Leith said her happy first marriage to Rayne Kruger, from 1974 until his death in 2002, limited her desire to build a wider social circle. "I had a very happy first marriage, but when your husband is your best friend you tend to neglect all that. Rayne was very reclusive too," she told the Daily Mail.
"He didn't need friends, and I was perfectly happy with that. I was working in London in the week, coming home on a Thursday, and when I did I was quite happy to have scrambled eggs with the children. I didn't want to see anyone else because I was tired from work. Later, I regretted that. When Rayne died, I was bloody lonely. I didn't have friends, didn't even know my neighbours. It never occurred to me at the time."
Her second husband, John Playfair, whom she married in 2016, has "all the friends", and Leith said she has grown close to many of them, joking "if he pops his clogs I'll still have friends."
Leaving Bake Off and new travel show
Leith recently said one reason she stepped away from Bake Off was that she felt she was "running out of time". She told Woman Magazine: "You can't be 86 without thinking about death a bit. I realised that I would never have a summer holiday in Europe again. Two years ago, I told them I was going to leave, and they asked why, and I said because I want a holiday in the summer."
Since quitting the show, she has re-teamed with Sandi Toksvig for a new travel series, Prue & Sandi's South African Adventure. The six-part show, due to begin on Tuesday, November 24 on Channel 4, sees the pair explore Cape Town, travel to the top of Table Mountain, and confront historical truths relating to Apartheid.
