1. Prue Leith was a judge on BBC Two's Great British Menu for eleven years, before joining The Great British Bake Off in March 2017, replacing Mary Berry, when the television programme moved to Channel 4.
22 Facts About Prue Leith
1. 2.
Prue Leith was Chancellor of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh from 2017 to 2024.
3.
Prue Leith was born on 18 February 1940 in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.
4.
In 1960, Prue Leith moved to London to attend the Cordon Bleu Cookery School and then began a business supplying high-quality business lunches.
5.
Concurrently with running her business, Prue Leith became a food columnist for, successively, the Daily Mail, Sunday Express, The Guardian and the Daily Mirror.
6.
Prue Leith was a last-minute replacement for Jack de Manio, and with no experience and a director who liked everything scripted, including interviews, she disliked the experience.
7.
Prue Leith returned to television to be a judge on The Great British Menu for 11 years until 2016 and a judge for My Kitchen Rules, which she left to replace Mary Berry in The Great British Bake Off.
8.
Prue Leith started, with the charity Training for Life, the Hoxton Apprentice; a not-for-profit restaurant which for ten years trained the most disadvantaged long-term unemployed young people.
9.
Prue Leith is vice-president of The Sustainable Restaurant Association; a trustee of Baby Taste Journey ; Patron of The Institute for Food, Brain and Behaviour, Sustain's Campaign for Better Hospital Food, and the Prue Leith Chef's Academy in her native South Africa.
10.
Prue Leith has been involved in many diverse organisations: she chaired the Restaurateurs Association ; she was a member of the Investors in People working group; she chaired the Royal Society of Arts ; and Forum for the Future.
11.
Prue Leith was a director of the housing association, Places for People and a member of the Consumer Debt Working Group that contributed to the Conservative Party's 2006 policy document Breakdown Britain.
12.
Prue Leith has been one of the voices in favour of Brexit, defending her choice, although lately voicing concern over lowering of food standards.
13.
Prue Leith has been a non-executive director of British Rail; British Transport Hotels; Safeway; Argyll plc, the Leeds Permanent Building Society; Whitbread plc; Woolworths plc; the Halifax; Triven VCT; Omega International plc; and Belmond Hotels Ltd and is a director and investor in several start-up companies.
14.
In 2025, Prue Leith participated in the sixth series of The Masked Singer as "Pegasus".
15.
Prue Leith was married to property developer and author Rayne Kruger from 1974 until his death aged 80 in December 2002.
16.
Similarly to Prue Leith, who said: "I ended up voting for Brexit but I dithered and dithered for ages because there were really good arguments on both sides", Danny Kruger said that he supported the UK leaving the EU.
17.
In October 2016, Prue Leith married John Playfair, a retired clothes designer; the couple originally lived apart in separate homes, but have subsequently built a house together in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, where they both live.
18.
Prue Leith's other brother, David Leith, was a former member of the RAF and worked for Prue Leith's Good Food.
19.
Prue Leith died from bone cancer in 2012, aged 74, in conditions described by Prue leith as absolute agony.
20.
Prue Leith is a Patron of Dignity in Dying and, in 2023, spoke at Parliament on this subject.
21.
Prue Leith's honours include the Business Woman of the Year in 1990 and thirteen honorary degrees or fellowships from UK universities.
22.
Prue Leith was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1989, Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 Birthday Honours and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to food, broadcasting and charity.