Bake Off's Prue Leith addresses criticism from viewers as she shares one regret

Great British Bake Off presenter Prue Leith has addressed criticism from viewers and shared one regret about her past as she reflects on fame and being recognised in public.

The 84-year-old, who has been on Bake Off since 2017 when she replaced Mary Berry, wrote in her book ‘I’ll Try Anything Once’ that she regrets not taking more pleasure in her looks when she was in her 20s and 30s.

She penned: “When I see pictures of myself in my twenties and thirties, I feel a pang of regret that I took no pleasure in my looks. I was convinced I was overweight and horse-faced. God, what I would give today to weight ten stone and get into a size twelve!”

Remarking on how she feels today, Prue said that one of the things she dislikes about herself is her voice and how she once spotted a social media post criticising her for it soon after she was announced as part of the Bake Off crew.

She wrote: “I can’t bear my schoolmistressy voice. One of the Bake Off fans, hearing of my appointment, tweeted ‘OMG, NO. Prue Leith has the worst voice on television.’ I rather agree.”

Despite initial misgivings about her hiring, fans have warmed to Prue and she too has adapted to the newfound public exposure and fame appearing on the show has brought her.

Prue added: “The thing I love about filming is all the pampering, people doing my make-up and hair, fussing about how I look, fetching me in posh cars. I confess to finding a bit of fame highly enjoyable.

“I like being stopped in the supermarket and being told how great the show is, or that I don’t look a day over sixty-five. I know people say what they think you want to hear but that’s fine by me.

“It is what I want to hear. I adore being referred to, even as a joke, which it usually is, as ‘the talent’. The talent! It hardly takes talent to be filmed eating cake and saying what you think of it.”

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In recent months, Prue has reflected on her future and told Bella magazine that she “won’t leave [Bake Off] in a hurry”. With regard to her own mortality, she added that because she was “so near the end” that she was “a bit more reckless now”.

It is this newfound spirit that Prue hinted had led to her catwalk debut at London Fashion Week. She explained: “If I was about to try to get a job on Bake Off I probably wouldn't walk down a catwalk in Latex with goth make-up on, but now it's too late.

“If I want to do it and it sounds like good fun I just think, 'why not? The crowd could not have been kinder, whooping and hollering at the gallant old lady (84 and counting) giving it a go. I'm just such an egotist, lapping up the attention.”