Stars who broke their awards trophies as Candice Brown smashes Bake Off prize

The Great British Bake Off champion Candice Brown has revealed she has smashed her cake stand trophy. The winner of the seventh series of the baking show shared a picture of the broken trophy on social media and asked is she could get a replacement.

Former PE teacher turned cookbook author and chef Brown, 39, won the last series of Bake Off to air on the BBC in 2016, before the cooking competition moved to Channel 4. She claimed that something had fallen down her chimney and smashed the engraved glass cake stand she was awarded for winning The Great British Bake Off, the night that Storm Jocelyn swept the UK.

Brown wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter: "Anyone know where I can get a new one of these??? F*******kkkkkkkkkkkkkk @BritishBakeOff (something fell down the chimney hit it and it smashed. I’m devastated #breakoff"

But it seems Brown is not the first Bake Off winner to have had an unfortunate accident with her glass trophy. In fact mishaps with the awards presented to reality TV champions are not as rare as you might think.

Here are some other reality stars who have had trophy trouble...

Great British Bake Off

John Whaite won the third series of Bake Off in 2012. He went on to compete in Strictly Come Dancing in 2021, partnered with Johannes Radebe. It was during his time on Strictly that he confessed his other half had smashed his Bake Off cake stand.

Whaite told TV Times magazine: “Before we started Strictly, I asked her, ‘Can I have my Bake Off trophy? I’ve got a bookshelf just built and I want to showcase it’. And she was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll find it for you’.

"I pushed her on it again a week later and she said, ‘I smashed it’. So now there’s a gaping hole on my bookshelf. I was going to put a skull there that my aunt gave me but the Glitterball would look much prettier.”

Strictly Come Dancing

Coronation Street star Ellie Leach confessed she had broken the Strictly Glitterball trophy almost immediately after winning it in 2023. But the soap actor — Strictly's youngest ever winner at 22 — revealed her father had repaired it.

She said: "I had to get all this stuff from London on the train to Manchester. I didn't want to carry it and be like 'oh here I go', so it was in my bag and it broke." Leach added: "My dad took it to his shed and he's fixed it all up."

Harry Judd revealed the glitterball trophy that celebrities take home is not the big one shown on TV. The McFly singer, who won in 2011, said: "They give you the big one and then they take it straight off you and give you this tiny little one."

Dancing On Ice

When ex-EastEnder and TV presenter Joe Swash won Dancing On Ice in 2020, he didn't just damage the trophy, he lost it. Reality TV star Swash confessed that he didn't realise he was allowed to take the trophy home, so after celebrating his win he left the gong behind at the after party.

He told This Morning: "I didn't think it was ours. I thought they give it to us and we go like 'oh, thank you', then you put it away in a box for next year... We have been told someone has found it under a table."

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

I'm A Celebrity bosses are less trusting of the Kings and Queens of the jungle with the carved wooden sceptre they are presented with each year when they take their throne as the winner of the series.

McFly’s Dougie Poynter — who won the jungle reality show in 2011 — revealed that winners must give back the wooden trophy immediately after the final show comes to an end. He said: "They give you the big one and then they take it straight off you and give you this tiny little one."

But the I'm A Celebrity contestants of 2017 were trusted with the shows National Television Award gong – only to lose it while celebrating their win. Radio presenter Iain Lee revealed: "The day after the National Television Awards [the producer] phoned me up and said, 'Have you got the NTA award? Someone’s walked off with it. I’ve got to ring round everyone that was there to see if they know where it is.'

"She spoke to me again on Friday and it still hasn’t turned up, so one of the celebrities has it. Which one of the celebrities has stolen [it]?"

Georgia 'Toff' Toffolo was named Queen of the Jingle that year and celebrated with campmates Lee, Amir Khan, Rebekah Vardy , Jamie Lomas, Jennie McAlpine and Vanessa White posing for selfies with the NTA before it went missing.

Toffolo later said: "I was so worried about that because as the winner I was suspect number one. Thankfully… You know what, I handed it over to Amir Khan… That was when I last had hands on our NTA. Well I don't want to point any fingers but..."

Read more: Trophy trouble

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