Bake Off's Prue Leith shares 'grim part of my life' as she uncovers 13-year 'dark secret'

Prue Leith has opened up about a 13-year "dark secret" from her past. In a recent episode of the Rosebud podcast, host Gyles Brandreth recounted a time in the early 1970s when the Bake Off legend invited him and his then-girlfriend (who is now his wife) to dinner.

He said Prue was "very glamorous" and thought that her dinner date, Rayne Kruger, was "extremely charming", but he was also "conscious" that he was older than her, and assumed they were married.

However, Prue revealed Rayne was actually her "lover" because, at the time, he had a wife. Prue said: "I mean, this is the grim part of my life. Rayne was married to my mother's best friend and she was so wonderful to me. She had been so helpful to me and we lived with them.

"When we came to England, we all lived in the same house and Rayne and Nan (Munro) and their three children and my mum and dad, and Rayne was 20 years older than me, but he was 20 years younger than his wife.

"He had married her after the war when her husband had been killed and she had three tiny children, so he had brought up three of her children.

"You know, he was 24 bringing up a six-year-old, a three-year-old and a one-year-old, or something. And we were all really, really close and I was staying with them."

Gyles then asked the South African restaurateur and writer whether she used the experience for one of her novels, to which Prue replied: "No, but I did write about it in my autobiography because, I thought, if you...

"You can either keep these things a dark secret all your life, but if you're going to write an autobiography, and I wanted to write a memoir, if you're going to write it, you've got to write the truth, and you've got to write the interesting things."

The host probed further, asking if she felt guilty at the time. Prue replied that she did, before explaining that her mother "didn't know" and that it had been a secret for 13 years.

Prue said she didn't want Rayne to leave Nan, but she "loved him to bits". When she was 34, Prue decided she had to leave Rayne, because she wanted to get married and have children.

She then recounted how she ran away with "some guy" she met in a restaurant, although she admitted that she was "absolutely using him". However, she later discovered that they were both running away from relationships.

This became a key moment, as Prue and Rayne later agreed to tell everyone, including Nan.

However, Nan's reaction was rather surprising, as she was "absolutely wonderful", telling Prue that she knew her own relationship wouldn't last with her husband, but if she had five years of happiness, it would be "worth it".

Prue said the late actress understood why she fell in love with her husband, and according to the Bake Off star, insisted that she got married and that Nan got a divorce, as Prue was pregnant at the time.

Prue initially spoke about the long affair in her 2012 autobiography, Relish: My Life on a Plate. She married the South African author in 1974, with the couple remaining married until his death in 2002, aged 80.

She was 62 at the time, but happily found love again when she reached 70, marrying fashion designer John Playfair after they met at a dinner party, reports the Express.