Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has revealed that she initially feared that she might be too old for her husband John Playfair but he stuck around and ended up wooing her with haggis.
Speaking on Friday night's Late Late Show, with John watching on in the front row, the remarkably youthful 83-year-old author and chef told host Ryan Tubridy, "I still call him my toy boy, but I also refer to him as my current husband. I met him in a friend’s house, but I was 70 when I met him, and I was so nervous because I knew he was younger than me.
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"So, I thought I’d better tell him my age immediately because I realised I was falling for him and I thought he’d be gone but he hung on and then he wooed me on haggis, which is a very good way to my heart."
Asked why younger people might be uncomfortable with the idea of older people falling in love, Prue said, "They find it rather revolting. It is odd but it is quite distressing for young people to see older people holding hands or kissing or anything revolting like that.
"I don’t know why that it is because it feels exactly the same when you’re 70 as it does when you are 17. Your heart goes a bit fast, and you think `can I text him?’ It’s just the same, just the same."
Prue brings her one-woman show, Nothing In Moderation, to Dublin's 3Olympia on 11 March, but she says that her fellow Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood advised her not to undertake a solo tour because it would leave her "knackered".
"Paul had done a one-man show and he said `don’t touch it, Prue. It’s absolutely knackering’" she said. "He was kind enough not to say and I’m thirty years younger than you so it will be worse for you. He didn’t say that, but he did say it will kill you as it’s too tiring.
"Then I asked Joanna Lumley and she said, `look, nobody will buy a ticket to see you unless they really like you and the audience will carry you’ and that’s exactly what happens.
"I was in Cardiff on my birthday when I turned 83 and you know the way the Welsh can sing? Well they sang happy birthday to me. The entire audience!
She added, "I felt quite tearful, and we hadn’t even started the show. I’m enjoying the shows now but at the start I was so frightened, and my heart was making so much noise and I wasn’t enjoying it but the audience are loving it and so I love it now."
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