• [Dailystar Icon]
• Showbiz
• Great British Bake Off

Prue Leith delivers one-word verdict as Nigella Lawson replaces her on Bake Off

Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has delivered her verdict on Nigella Lawson replacing her on the hit Channel 4 show, calling the TV chef the ideal successor after nearly a decade in the tent

[An elderly woman with gray hair and wearing red-framed glasses is standing outside, likely in a garden. She is dressed in an ora]

Prue spent nine years on Bake Off(Image: Channel 4)

Dame Prue Leith offered a brief but telling response following the revelation that Nigella Lawson would take over her role on The Great British Bake Off. The 85 year old announced her exit last week after almost a decade presenting the show.

Prue had worked alongside judge Paul Hollywood since 2017, taking over when Dame Mary Berry left after the programme moved to Channel 4. Her decision to step down, she explains, will enable her to "work less and play more".

Originally, Prue believed she'd be "lucky to manage two years" on the series, admitting there seemed "no good reason" to walk away. But after a holiday in Madagascar, she decided to quit so she could enjoy more downtime with her husband John Playfair.

The news that 66-year-old Nigella would replace Prue left the cooking expert saying she was "lost for words" when she heard the announcement.

[CHARLBURY, OXFORDSHIRE - AUGUST 01: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Restaurateur Dame Prue Leith poses for a portrait as she prepares to h]

She has been replaced by Nigella(Image: Jim Dyson, Getty Images)

However, Prue has backed Nigella as her "perfect" replacement. In The Times, she wrote: "Nigella Lawson is to replace me. Perfect. She's a great baker and knows her onions, cookies, crumbles and croissants.", reports the Express.

"She's also really nice, mighty glam and seriously bright, sexy and sassy. I'm just glad she wasn't in the running nine years ago."

Prue went on to state there "cannot be a better job" than Bake Off, observing: "Being paid to eat cake, and to do it for a company that is entirely honourable and pays a decent whack, takes some beating."

The position is "hardly taxing", she observes, requiring no rehearsals or formal meetings. Prue jokes that she and Paul simply "walked on, ate cake and said what we thought".

This afforded her the chance to write her memoirs, novels and cookbooks. Nevertheless, she admits she will "miss" Paul alongside Bake Off presenters Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding.

[Picture of Nigella Lawson]

Nigella Lawson has been announced as the new Bake Off judge(Image: Instagram/britishbakeoff)

Prue has previously admitted that she "hasn't got long left" and wants to spend more quality time with her husband. So much so, that John now travels with Prue wherever her work takes her.

Speaking on Holly Rubenstein's The Travel Diaries podcast last year, Dame Prue disclosed: "I haven't got much longer, I'm 85, I want to spend as much time as I can with him."

She added: "And so, if we are filming abroad, or like next week, we're going to New York, because I've got to publicise the American baking show, then I'm now old enough for my agent to say 'I'm sorry, but she has to ring her husband, because she's 85, she needs someone to carry the bags' she doesn't quite say 'she needs a carer' but it's pretty close."

Prue and John married in 2016, 14 years following the death of her first husband Rayne Kruger, who passed away aged 80 in 2002. She shares two children, Danny Kruger and Li-Da Kruger, whom they adopted from Cambodia, with Rayne.

Prue's gastronomic adventure kicked off when she moved to London to enrol at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in the 1960s. She then started her own catering venture before founding Leith's School of Food and Wine.

She has graced our screens on shows like The Great British Menu and currently hosts Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen on ITV One.

Have you joined Threads? Follow Daily Star to keep up to date on all things showbiz here

Want all the biggest Showbiz and TV news straight to your inbox? Sign up for our free Daily Star Showbiz newsletter

[Dailystar Icon]

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Choose Daily Star as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.