Prue Leith says she felt ‘suicidal’ after accidentally revealing Great British Bake Off winner on Twitter

Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has revealed she felt ‘suicidal’ after the Twitter mishap that saw her reveal the 2017 winner of the baking show 12 hours early.

Leith, who was appearing on ITV chat show This Morning, told hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that the incident had been "one of the worst half an hours" she'd experienced.

“You’re going to ask me about that tweet. I think that was one of the worst half an hours. That first half an hour, when I realised what I’d done, which was the most idiotic thing in the world," she said.

“I felt suicidal, awful. The thing that upset me the most was that this would take attention off the winner. And Sophie [Faldo] has worked for months and months for this moment. The column inches would be about my tweet and not her triumph.”

Last month Leith was left red-faced after she accidentally posted a tweet revealing that Sophie Faldo had been crowned the 2017 Bake Off champion.

She wrote: “No one told me judging a #gbbo final would be so emotional. I wanted them all to win. Bravo Sophie.”

The TV cook and restaurateur, who was in Bhutan at the time, attributed the blunder to a time difference.

She also told Willoughby and Schofield that the offending tweet had been deleted after ’89 seconds’ but that it wasn’t fast enough to stop it spreading around the social media site.

“I quickly tweeted, as soon as it went I thought, ‘Oh my God!’ I went into a panic mode. I couldn’t work my phone and I couldn’t think how to delete it quickly,” she explained.

“I rang my trusted PA and she’d already deleted it. It was 89 seconds after I’d done it but it was already too late.”

This Morning continues weekdays at 10:30 am on ITV, while The Great British Bake Off returns to Channel 4 in 2018.