Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has admitted that her affair with her late husband, Rayne Kruger, began as a secret affair.
The 83-year-old admits she had “a long affair” with fellow South African Rayne, who died in 2002, aged 80. She remembers that he was even married to his mother’s best friend at the time.
In her forthcoming autobiography, Prue will explain how property developer and author Rayne eventually left his wife, the late South African actress Nan Munro.
But Prue says that she never asked her husband to leave his wife. reports the mirror.
The TV star admits that she had reservations about revealing how she met her husband in her memoir, but decided that in the interest of keeping things interesting for the reader, she opted to tell the full story.
READ MORE: Beyonce’s fans described the ‘mind-blowing’ moment they saw the singer live
“I never asked him to leave his wife because he was so happy,” Prue tells Kate Thornton on the White Wine Question Time podcast.
“I had none of life’s duties and all the pleasures of someone who loved me. I wasn’t pushing to get married. They all remained great friends.”
“We had 13 secret years and nobody guessed because we were discreet.
“But in some ways it was easier because he was a family friend, president of my company, and he helped me tremendously and everyone knew we were great friends.”
Prue added, “We didn’t go out to dinner or anything that would create any kind of suspicion. If people saw us together, they thought it was because we worked together.”
Prue says that surprisingly, Nan forgave both Rayne and Prue when she found out about the affair.
Speaking about how she and her late husband remained friends with Nan, Prue added: “Rayne was determined. She said, ‘We don’t have enough friends to lose them. We all love each other, we’re not going to let this destroy them.’ us.” And Nan followed Rayne’s lead, or he hers.
“I remember one of her really famous actress friends saying to her, ‘How can you go spend the weekends and stay with Prue and Rayne? That woman, she’s a witch, she stole your husband.'”
“And Nan said, ‘Are you going to have me every weekend? Should I go to you instead?’ She said: “They are my friends, I love them. Yes, it’s been hard, but Prue is still Prue.” She was incredibly forgiving. And an extraordinary woman.”
Prue was 62 when Rayne died in 2002. The Bake Off star remarried, marrying English fashion designer John Playfair in 2016.