Dame Prue Leith, the Great British Bake Off judge, has revealed details of her 'painful' 13-year affair with her late husband Rayne Kruger, who was married when they met. Speaking during her first stage tour, 'Prue Leith: Nothing In Moderation', she said: 'I had an affair for 13 years with the man who became my husband... I never regretted it as I loved him and he loved me. It all ended well, but it was very painful for a while.'
The 82-year-old restaurateur and cookery writer also shared memories of a Parisian party in the 1960s where she was encouraged to strip off. 'A friend said to me, 'There's a party going on and I can get us both in.' When we went in, there was a sea of bare bums bouncing up and down on bean bags. I was absolutely horrified and too prudish to join in,' she recalled. 'I thought I would be more invisible if I took my clothes off, so I stripped off and walked about pretending I was on the way to the bar or going to the loo.'
Leith, who grew up in South Africa and attended a convent boarding school, initially wanted to teach horse riding. 'When I was young, the thing I wanted to do was teach people how to ride horses. And when I was much younger I wanted to marry a horse! When I told my father, he said, 'You do realise all your children will be centaurs?'' she joked. She later realised boys were more exciting than horses.
After moving to London in 1960, Leith attended the Cordon Bleu cookery school and launched her catering business, Leith's Good Food. Her Notting Hill restaurant, Leith's, opened in 1969 and became a celebrity hotspot. She recalled: 'The Beatles came in one night and wanted a full English breakfast. I explained it would be an expensive fry-up as we had a fixed menu, and they said, 'Oh, we can afford it.'' Princess Margaret also dined there, prompting Leith to ask waiters to pose as customers to avoid an empty restaurant.
Leith found love again after Kruger's death in 2002, marrying retired clothes designer John Playfair in 2016. 'I do recommend geriatric love,' she said. 'I have only been in love three times in my life. The first was my first husband, the next time was when I was in my sixties and I fell in love with a wonderful man who was a pianist. Then I fell in love with my present husband.'
