UPDATE: |Bake Off judge Prue Leith says ‘I’m no longer able to’ as she addresses health struggle News

Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith, 85, has enjoyed gardening since she was a child in South Africa but says she is ‘no longer able to be hands-on’

Dame Prue Leith has candidly shared her struggles with a health issue as she confesses she is “no longer able to do certain things”.

The Great British Bake Off judge, 85, is a keen gardener and has fallen in love with plants from her native South Africa. And when not appearing on cooking shows, Prue has even branched out into gardening television.

Now well into her eighties thugh, Prue admits she can’t be as “hands-on” as she would like in the garden. She has however recently invested in a new potting shed and greenhouse for her garden.

Speaking to The Telegraph, she said: “We’ve got a new potting shed and greenhouse and I’m thrilled. It’s full of plants I had in childhood in South Africa, like bright bougainvillaea.

“I like propagating because my back hurts and I can do it on a high stool. I’m not as hands-on as I’d like because I’m no longer able to be. I find it vaguely surprising I can’t do certain things any longer.”

Prue’s love for gardening is a stark contrast to her younger years when she showed little interest in the activity. Growing up in Johannesburg during the 1940s and 50s, she lived in a home with a “lovely garden” and a gardener, reports Gloucestershire Live.

Although her mother did some gardening, Prue herself was not drawn to it, recalling to House and Garden in 2022: “I remember being given a little veggie patch, and I was encouraged to grow my own beans and things. I didn’t last more than one season.”

Prue discovered the true value of greenery when she became a mother, experiencing firsthand how her children would become irate in supermarkets but utterly content in the tranquility of their local park.

Since those early days, Prue and her husband John Playfair have worked miracles on their property, transforming what was once a stark concrete yard and overgrown fields into a splendid garden retreat.

Prue now relishes the moments spent in her garden with a glass of wine, surrounded by friends. She expresses her joy on her blog: “I don’t know anything better than sitting with, glass in hand, on the terrace on a summer’s evening, and gazing at the garden. Unless it’s forcing our friends to tour every inch of it, telling us how lovely it is.”

Amidst her gardening endeavors, Prue admits that age has necessitated her to reduce other commitments as well. Following her debut as a judge on Bake Off in 2017, she recently chose not to participate in the show’s Stand Up to Cancer celebrity series.

She shared the reasons for her step back: “These things are filmed back-to-back all the way through summer from April to August so you don’t get any time off,” adding, “I’m getting quite old and there’s places I want to see. So I’m not doing this year’s.”