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Dame Prue Leith expressed her belief that women cannot “have it all,” acknowledging that motherhood might have been “boring and tiring” for her, particularly when considering her career.
At 85, Leith, who is a judge on The Great British Bake Off, explained that she wouldn’t have been able to establish her restaurant, kickstart her cookery school, or develop her catering business if she had settled down with a family in her twenties.
Discussing this on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast, she noted, “Timing is crucial. If you’re fortunate to succeed to the point where you can hire help—since, realistically, raising multiple children while holding a full-time job requires assistance—it’s really about having that support.”
‘I didn’t have my children until I was 34. So I had my business under my belt before I started breeding.
She reflected, “I doubt I would have achieved what I did had I married my husband at the age of 22 or 23. I met him back then, but didn’t tie the knot immediately.”
Leith added, “Had we married in our early twenties and started a family, running the restaurant or opening the school would have been impossible, as these endeavors all happened within a decade.”
The sentiment that women can’t “have it all” was reiterated by Dame Prue Leith while she contemplated the potential mundanity and exhaustion of motherhood in the context of her professional journey.
The Great British Bake Off judge, 85, claims she could not have built her catering empire if she had married and had children in her twenties (pictured on Bake Off with Paul Hollywood)
Prue met her first husband, author Rayne Kruger, in her early twenties. The couple began an affair while he was married to her mother’s best friend, eventually marrying in 1974. He died in 2002.
Together they had two children – Danny, now 50, a Conservative MP for Devizes, and Li-Da, 49, whom they adopted from Cambodia as a baby.
Prue remarried in 2016, tying the knot with retired fashion designer John Playfair when she was 76.
‘By 1969, I opened the restaurant, and the ’70s was my most busy year, because then I opened the cookery school, and everything was doing incredibly well,’ she continued.
‘And my children were born in 1974. So by the time I had my babies – one baby and adopted the other one – I would get first an au pair and then a nanny.’
But the Bake Off star, who returns to our screens in the new series of the Channel 4 show on Tuesday, is adamant that women should not put themselves under pressure to manage everything at once.
When asked if women can have it all, she replied: ‘No, you can’t have it all.’
She added: ‘I would not have been a good full-time mother. I would have found the company of young children all the time boring and tiring.’
‘I didn’t have my children until I was 34. So I had my business under my belt before I started breeding,’ she explained on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast
Prue married her first husband, author Rayne Kruger, in 1974. He died in 2002. Together they had two children – Danny, now 50, and Li-Da, 49, whom they adopted from Cambodia
Prue, who returns to our screens in the new series of the Channel 4 show on Tuesday, is adamant that women should not put themselves under pressure to manage everything
Prue continued: ‘And I’d have got ratty and furious with them all the time. I think they need relief from their mother. And you need relief from them.’
The restaurateur, who joined The Great British Bake Off judging panel in 2017, replacing Dame Mary Berry, praised her son’s mother-in-law, Ginny, as an example of the kind of hands-on grandparent who makes a huge difference to her three grandchildren.
‘She is the absolute ideal granny. She does everything. She makes things with the children for fancy dresses. She cooks, she cleans, she takes the kids to the park.
‘She just slots in all the time – and she doesn’t have a salary, so that’s brilliant. How many people can have that? I think Ginny is a complete saint, because I would never do that job.’
While she admits full-time parenting would not have been ‘not enjoyable’ for her, Prue said she has nothing but respect for women who relish full-time motherhood.
‘There are mums who absolutely love every minute with their children. And that’s fantastic, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. We’re all different, but, boy, hats off to them, I couldn’t do that.’
The culinary star – who was made a Dame in 2021 – also opened up about experiencing imposter syndrome, despite her long career at the top of British food culture.
‘I don’t think anybody who’s highly successful doesn’t think, “How did I get here? This is ridiculous. I don’t deserve it.” If that’s imposter syndrome, certainly I do [have it],’ she admitted.
‘And I put it down to amazing good luck. And the fact that I have a lot of energy, which is God-given. I can’t take any credit for the fact that I wake up in the morning and think, let’s do it!’ She revealed one of her children once described her as ‘very tiring’.
