'Great British Baking Show' judge Prue Leith details 'secret' 13-year affair with first husband

Joy Ashford, USA TODAY
Updated ·2 min read
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"The Great British Baking Show" judge Prue Leith is getting candid about a 13-year affair she had in her early 20s.

Leith, 83, detailed the circumstances around her "secret" relationship with Rayne Kruger, her then-mentor and the chairman of her company; she first revealed in her 2012 autobiography "Relish."

"I never asked Rayne to leave his wife because I was very happy," Leith said in an episode of Kate Thornton's podcast "White Wine Question Time" earlier this month. "I was building my business. I had none of the duties of a wife, and I had all the pleasures of somebody who loved me."

At the time, Kruger was married to Nan Munro, who was friends with Leith's mother.

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Prue Leith opened up on details about her 13-year affair in an episode of the "White Wine Question Time" podcast.
Prue Leith opened up on details about her 13-year affair in an episode of the "White Wine Question Time" podcast.

Leith explained on the podcast that she and Kruger were "very discreet" about their affair "because he was a family friend."

"Everybody knew that we were great friends and that he was my mentor because he was 20 years older than me," she said during the May 5 podcast episode. "We did have 13 secret years and nobody ever guessed because we were discreet."

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The affair came to a halt after 13 years once Leith, then 34, realized she wanted to have a child. The cookbook author said she didn't believe Kruger would leave his wife to be with her and have kids.

"He left Nan and he rang me up and said, 'Come home. We'll have a baby. I can't live without you,'" Leith recalled.

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Who is Prue Leith's husband?

Leith and the author welcomed their son Danny in 1974 and married later that year. They also adopted daughter Li-Da during their marriage. The pair remained married for 28 years before Kruger's death in 2002.

In 2016, the chef married John Playfair.

Leith joined "The Great British Baking Show" in 2017 during its eighth season. Previously, she was a judge on the cooking show "Great British Menu" for 11 years.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Prue Leith, 'Great British Baking Show' judge, reveals 13-year affair