Dame Prue Leith has finally revealed what she and Paul Hollywood get up to when they are banished from Bake Off tent for three hours – she writes cookbooks and he watches “manly” TV shows.
The Great British Bake Off judges share a giant trailer on the set of the Channel 4 hit filmed in Welford Park, Berkshire.
They have their own lounge areas and bathrooms, but are separated by a wall.
Dame Prue, 85, said: “He is mad about motor cars, motor racing and football, and all sorts of mannish stuff like that, so he watches his telly.
“I am a workaholic and I have a lot of energy, and I want to use it, so over the eight years that I have been on Bake Off, I have written three cookbooks, two novels and an autobiography. So basically I write!”
She added Paul, 59, might not always be able to hear the shows he loves watching, as she was also forced to practise for her stint on a popular ITV singing contest.
Dame Prue revealed: “When I was on The Masked Singer, I learned to sing. I had to get the singing in because we filmed it in September last year and we stopped filming Bake Off in July.
“So I was having lessons over Zoom, and I was having to practise and gurgle and do all these voice exercises, and belt out my three songs that I had learned.
“I figured if you have got two bathrooms between us he won’t be able to hear me. Apparently he could! But he never let on.”
The cookery writer takes a break for Bake Off’s latest celebrity edition for Stand Up To Cancer – which airs tonight. Instead friend Lady Caroline Waldegrave, 72, the former co-owner and managing director of Leith’s School of Food and Wine, steps in.
● The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer, Channel 4, tonight, 7.40pm
