Bake Off judge Prue Leith talks to Yours about how hormone therapy has been her secret weapon... and why she fears her husband may become the star of her new show
It’s hard to believe that Prue Leith just turned 84 years old. She fizzes with vitality and enthusiasm when we meet, despite being saddled with a schedule that would exhaust the Duracell Bunny.
Prue has just flown back from the Caribbean, where she was a guest at a business conference held at Richard Branson’s home on Necker Island. She’s designed a new range of her statement necklaces and, this week, Prue is being thrust back into the spotlight with her Saturday ITV cookery series, Prue Leith’s Cotswold Kitchen.
The secret to her verve? “I often say it’s the hormone patch on my bum,” quips Prue cheekily, looking characteristically colourful in a bright blue top and matching specs.
And she’s not joking. “The truth is, HRT has a lot to do with one’s energy levels,” explains Prue. “I mean, I had a hysterectomy when I was in my early 40s – I had a non ‐cancerous fibroid in my belly and that was the best idea. That’s when I started HRT.” She says over the past four decades she has resisted many GPs’ attempts to wean her off HRT because of medical fears surrounding its prolonged use. “We have the conversation and I flatly refuse to stop,” she chuckles.
As far as Prue is concerned, HRT is doing her a power of good. “I don’t know that it lifts my mood because I haven’t been off it, but I know I am very well and happy,” she beams. “The point is, it replaces hormones you lose as you get older. I don’t know the science of it, but I know it works. And you only have to see what happens with women who get really unhappy during menopause and do the craziest things. They get put on HRT and recover. It’s so obvious.”
What’s also obvious is that Prue has no intention of slowing down in her ninth decade. She’s seizing the opportunity to front her own Saturday cookery show, which starts this weekend and is based in the modern house she designed with her husband, John Playfair.
“When they asked me to do it, they said, ‘We want you to cook,’ but I said I wanted to have other stuff on it as well,” says Prue. “The fact we live in the Cotswolds, we have all these amazing food heroes nearby, bakers and cheesemakers, and also I know a lot of really interesting people in the Cotswolds.”
She also invites on her Bake Off mates Sandi Toksvig and Alison Hammond for a chat and a bit of cooking – episode one features a segment in which Sandi and Prue cook hundred-year-old recipes from leaflets Sandi bought at auction. Each episode also sees Prue cooking with her husband. “
