Dame Prue Leith has said that she felt “terrible” about inadvertently spoiling the result of the Great British Bake Off final back in 2017.
The 81-year-old presenter, who serves as a judge on the popular culinary reality show, was holidaying at the time in Bhutan, and misjudged the time difference when congratulating the winner on social media.
Leith addressed the controversy on an episode of the BBC Radio 4 series Desert Island Discs.
“It was absolutely awful,” she said. “I was having a siesta in Bhutan and I picked up my phone and I saw a message from the production company who said ‘don’t forget to congratulate the winner after 10pm’.
“I looked at my watch and quickly tweeted ‘bravo Sophie’ and a text came whizzing in which just said ‘eek eek it’s tonight delete delete’. By then I was panicking so much I didn’t know which button to press so I rang my secretary, which I do in every moment of panic, and she said don’t worry I’ve deleted it.”
Having misjudged the time difference, Leith’s message of congratulations actually went out six hours before the show first aired.
“[My secretary] had deleted it 89 seconds after it went out but it was too late, it had gone viral by then,” Leith continued. “I just felt so terrible.
“What’s interesting is the prime minister of Bhutan rang me up and said ‘you have put Bhutan on the map’.”
Leith joined Bake Off when the series moved from the BBC to Channel 4, replacing Mary Berry.
Desert Island Discs airs on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4 on Sunday at 11am.
