Prue Leith, 84, admits ‘this is nearly the end’ in candid reflection on ageing
Dame Prue Leith has spoken honestly about ageing as she approaches her 85th birthday milestone next month.
The Great British Bake Off host, 84, also recently revealed details of her home life with husband John Playfair.
Reflecting on her 84 years, Leith declared bluntly that: “I think old age stinks!”
“It takes me 10 minutes to get myself out of the bed in the morning and if I don’t do the exercises, I can’t move,” she admitted.
The culinary legend added: “All sorts of things that are wrong with old age.”
Beyond the physical challenges, Leith revealed her age had begun to make her more and more conscious of her mortality.
“You know, you are very conscious that this is nearly the end,” she explained.
Even still, she explained that the realisation had also given her much more freedom in her approach to life
“You then decide that you’re going to make the most of it and have fun,” the 84-year-old celebrated.
In a similarly sanguine note, Leith also joked old age means you “don’t care what people think as much as you did.”
She was speaking in celebration of ITV’s 70 years of broadcasting as part of Loose Women’s “This is 70+” special hosted by Janet Street-Porter, 78, Lesley Joseph, 79, and Gloria Hunniford, 84.
Elsewhere, Leith has kept herself busy: appearing on another series of Bake Off, which she judged on alongside Paul Hollywood since the show moved to Channel 4 in 2017, and launching another cook book last year.
On top of that, the baker also appeared in the latest series of The Masked Singer where she was revealed in the first week as the celeb behind Pegasus.
In her private life, Leith has now moved in with her “much younger” husband John Playfair in their custom-built house on her farm.
The pair married in 2016, more than a decade after the death of Leith’s first husband, Rayne Kruger, in 2002.
Before sharing their new house, the couple lived separately and have continued some of their old habits.
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She has previously explained that they had initially use two bedrooms, one for sleeping and one as a “banishment room”.
The second, forebodingly named room, would only be used when “one of us snores so much that we can’t bear it”.
Despite potential noise complaints, Leith also had a bittersweet thought about her husband regarding them both ageing.
“One of the things I would not like, and it’s not going to happen because he is much younger than me… But I really would hate life without him,” she concluded touchingly.