Prue Leith, 85, a great British Bake Off judge, recalls a dramatic incident on icy ski slopes and other dramatic events from her ten-year departure.
Her new book explores what she does to stay young and doesn’t involve exercise as Prue announces she’ll leave The Great British Bake Off after almost a decade on the series to spend more time with her husband.
Push-ups and pilates are just two exercises Prue Leith refers to as “variations of hell.” The outspoken culinary icon, who is 85, says, “I find exercise for the sake of exercise painful and unbelievably boring.
For me, going running in the rain, using a Pilates reformer machine, or doing push-ups on the floor in the bedroom are all forms of hell. Yoga, steps, spinning, and other things.
The Great British Bake Off star’s confessions appear in her book Being Old… And Learning to Love It, which is scheduled to be released on February 26. She lives with her husband, retired fashion designer John Playfair, 77, in a home she built in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire.
Prue, who is well-known for her striking style, bold clothing, and eye-catching spectacles, doesn’t seem to be changing.
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She acknowledges that her grandchildren occasionally challenge her youthful perspective as mother to politician son Danny and filmmaker daughter Li-Da. When your three-year-old grandchild grabs your neck and asks, “Nana, why is your neck so stringy?,” she explains. And you can’t deny the widening waist, gray hair, and stooping back. However, I believe that the majority of people are old.
She’s delighted that attitudes toward getting older have changed as a judge who kept bakers on edge during her time on Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off. She goes on to say that “my parents’ generation, as well as many of my, imbibed the notion that everything is “inappropriate” for us once we reach the age of 60: dancing, sitting on a bar stool, wearing pillar-box red, smoking marijuana, etc. They appear to believe that we should all knit and beige together.
They were brainwashed, in my opinion. They argued that the idea of their worth was flawed, and that we should stop thinking about romance, love, and sex, that we are too old to be useful to anyone, and that we should support both ungrateful grandchildren and old people.
Prue rejects the “MEDS” philosophy for older people, where M represents mental well-being and maintaining a positive outlook, D denotes diet, moderate eating, and alcohol consumption, and S denotes stress, which should be at least minimized. She admits, “I don’t match up,” it goes without saying.
“I’m fortunate that I enjoy a little stress because I enjoy keeping a full diary and keeping up balls in the air,” she said. But I’m never stressed out. Prue finds the “forced exercise” to be particularly challenging.
She goes on to say, “I’ve joined gyms that I never went to at various times in my life. I’ve hired personal trainers, but I soon switched them, and I’ve made numerous resolutions regarding exercise and diet. When non-competitive exercise like Pilates, yoga, or working out at the gym is the worst, right?
She clarifies, however, that she prefers competitive activities over physical activity. There is a chance you’ll win, according to Prue, who goes further. I enjoy riding because it’s thrilling and can be done together.
There is a lot of pleasure in cantering in a companiable group in the early mornings as you watch deer and scattering rabbits on Ham Common in London, where I used to ride polo horses. Every other Tuesday morning, I used to play tennis. Long walks and more tennis and riding were available on weekdays at home in the country.
Unfortunately, some of these pursuits have been hampered by advancing times. She admits that as I get older, I’ve had to work with my own adaptations.
When my daughter sold her horse and left the family, I stopped riding, and I found myself hacked around the countryside. My horse would just cut the grass and wait for me to get on again if I was lying in a ditch with a broken back.
“He wouldn’t, like my childhood pony, Laddie, run home to fetch help. I stopped playing tennis when I kept falling over; likewise, I now fish from a boat, not standing in a rushing river; and last Christmas I went sit-skiing, not skiing. All these accommodations have been forced on me, and I’m fine with that: I don’t want to be swept away by the river Spey or to break my neck on an Alpine piste.”
She recalls: “Both times a disaster. One at the age of 19 and the other at the later end of life.
The second attempt took place on nursery slopes devoid of snow in Wengen, Switzerland. She recounts: “Utter fiasco. I had long skis which kept coming off, and a 17-year-old Austrian instructor, whose flowing blonde hair and graceful moves disguised the hard-faced devil she really was. She swooped down the icy slopes and I came tumbling after. She shouted a lot, I cried a lot.”
She discovered enjoyment in sit-skiing during a lavish “magical Christmas week trip to Val d’Isère in 2024 with 17 members of our “mixed” tribe.
She continues, “I pondered, sod it, let’s go the whole hog.” What better way to spend your hard-earned money than on a trip with your loved ones? However, for me, the sit-skiing was the highlight.
She enjoys traveling extensively in the UK with her husband, John, and frequently transforms work commitments to promote her stand-up performances into mini vacation escapades. She goes on to say, “John sweetlyaccompanies me, and that makes a work trip into a fun jaunt.” The towns are so close that it takes only a few hours to drive to the next one, leaving time to see the town, even if you are booked in different theaters every night.
“All four of us, me, John, the driver-cum-fixer-cum-techie, and Clive Tulloch, the producer, director, and friend, muddle along,” we say, chatting and emailing each other. We arrive just in time for a nice lunch, and Clive and Jim set up the theater for a while while John explores. Then we’ll perform the show and enjoy a drink at our hotel.
