Bake Off’s Prue Leith says older women shouldn’t be afraid to fall in love a second time

Great British Bake-Off judge Prue Leith married her second husband John Playfair in 2016 and is now encouraging other women not to give up on finding love again later in life

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Prue Leith attends the Cirque du Soleil Luzia premiere with husband John Playfair

Prue Leith believes older women shouldn’t be afraid to fall in love a second time or rock the kind of bold colors she does on TV.

The 82-year-old Great British Bake Off judge married her second husband John Playfair in 2016 after finding true romance again. And she says she’s not alone in this.

She said: “It happens often. I have many friends who fell in love late in life. I think young people don’t understand that.”

The chef continued: “I think they find it embarrassing that old people aren’t supposed to do something like that.

“The funny thing is, they’ll find that when they get older they’ll feel the same way they did when they were younger.”

She added: “When I fell in love with John now, it was just like when I fell in love with my first husband, like how you panic when you look at your phone, or like ‘should I text’ and all that. And why wouldn’t it be?”

Prue, who received a damehood last year, is back on TV with fellow judge Paul Hollywood for a celebrity version of Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer.

And the South African is almost as well known for her bright outfits as for her culinary knowledge.

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She said: “Sometimes I want to shake women. I get letters from them saying, ‘I admire you so much. ‘ I say, ‘Why not?’ Then you need it.

“Women think it’s their duty to be invisible when they’re 50 or 60, and I think that’s nonsense.”

Prue also hopes to be more visible in the US, and she and Paul fly off in the fall to crack it together.

She has family matters to attend to closer to home.

She told the Jonathan Van Ness podcast, “I started a production company with my daughter called Relish. When that starts, it will be fantastic.”

The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer airs Tuesdays at 8pm on Channel 4 and is available through All 4.

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