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Bake Off's Prue Leith opens up on dementia fears as she makes 'embarrassing' claim

Great British Bake Off star Prue Leith has opened up about her fears of getting dementia as the cooking legend admits she is getting more forgetful as she gets older

[Prue Leith]

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Prue Leith opened up on her dementia fears(Image: PA)

Great British Bake Off star Prue Leith has voiced her fears of developing dementia as she grows older as she admitted to being "embarrassed" by one thing in particular.

The Bake Off icon, who celebrated her 85th birthday earlier this year, has often been open about her thoughts on mortality.

Prue revealed that her mother, South African actress Margaret Inglis, lived with dementia for the last 15 years of her life before passing away in 2010, and she worries about facing a similar fate.

Speaking to The Times, the TV personality confessed: "I definitely am getting more forgetful. I mean, I don't think I've got dementia, but I might (in the future)."

She also admitted to struggling with remembering names, saying: "I'm no good at names. I think I'm too selfish or something to bother to remember them. And that's often embarrassing. I mean, I've forgotten yours already."

[Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith]

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Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith on Bake Off(Image: Channel 4)

Prue has penned a new book titled Being Old and Learning to Love It, set to be published in February. The book is a collection of essays discussing love, grief, work, fashion, and fame, reports the Manchester Evening News.

She shares that her mum "lost her mind completely" before her death but remained "perfectly cheerful" till the end. The mother-of-two added that while it was "horrible for the rest of us, but she was fine".

Currently married to her second husband, retired clothes designer John Playfair, Prue was previously wed to South African property developer and author Rayne Kruger, who passed away in 2002. She has been a vocal advocate for assisted dying following the painful death of her brother David from bone cancer in 2012, which she described as "absolute agony".

Prue's worries about her mortality don't appear to be affecting her way of life.

She confessed to experimenting with weight loss injections for two months, but she completely lost her appetite and didn't drop a single pound.

The celebrity revealed she discontinued them as quickly as possible.

[Prue Leith]

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Prue Leith admitted she is becoming "more forgetful"(Image: Channel 4)

And Prue, who established herself on Great British Menu before replacing Dame Mary Berry on The Great British Bake Off, confesses she enjoys two or three glasses of wine every evening - and her husband struggles to match her drinking habits.

She told The Times: "He hardly drinks now and I'm a great boozer. I have two or three glasses of wine every night and he'll only have half a glass, which he probably won't finish. It's a pity."

Prue was born in South Africa in 1940 and relocated to London to study at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in 1960.

In 1969, she launched Leith's, her Michelin-starred eatery in Notting Hill.

She became a food writer whilst managing her enterprise before securing her television breakthrough as a judge on the BBC's The Great British Menu in 2006.

Despite her position on Bake Off boosting her fame, there is one element of the programme that clearly annoys her husband.

She said: " It irritates my husband that people think I'm just a cakemaker. Especially because I don't actually bake."

Catch Prue Leith on The Great British Bake Off tomorrow evening (Tuesday, November 4) at 8pm on Channel 4.

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