Prue Leith’s fake ‘letter-bomb’ horror after ‘ghostwriting’ royal recipes

Question Time: Prue Leith discusses Brexit in 2018

The celebrated chef, 81, returns to TV screens tonight in The Great British Bake Off For Stand Up To Cancer. Leith has earned scores of fans in recent years after she replaced Dame Mary Berry on the popular Channel 4 show. Last year, Bake Off saw a spike in viewing figures after 9.2 million people tuned in for Peter Sawkins’ victory in the final.

Away from Bake Off, Leith is a respected figure in the food industry in her own right and has been in the industry for around 60 years.

She wrote columns for newspapers during her younger years, has authored books and is also an established restaurateur. 

Prior to landing the gig on Bake Off, she spent 11 years as a judge on BBC Two’s Great British Menu.

Leith’s fame led her to have several encounters with the Royal Family too, including multiple clashes with Prince Philip. 

Prue Leith revealed her unusual dalliances with the Royal Family in a candid disclosure (Image: GETTY / CHANNEL 4)

Channel 4 drew in personal-record viewing figures for Bake Off when Peter Sawkins won last year (Image: CHANNEL 4)

In a Daily Mail article earlier this month, the chef paid tribute to the late Duke, who died at 99 years old, on April 9.

Leith was described as having “encountered” Philip’s “every mood” and even “stood up to him” on several occasions. 

She recounted one tale where Philip was “banging on about” people who “had too many children”.

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Prue Leith paid tribute to the late Prince Philip, who died on April 9 at the age of 99 (Image: GETTY)

Surprisingly, she called out the royal’s statement as “a bit rich” from “someone with four children”. 

Aside from her encounters with Philip, Leith was linked to another royal too – the Queen’s cousin, Lady Elizabeth Ansom.

At 21 years old, the future TV star was asked to “ghostwrite” a column for the royal in the Daily Mail. 

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Bake Off star Prue Leith has been in the culinary world for more than 60 years (Image: GETTY)

Lady Elizabeth admitted to the editor that she couldn’t “write” or “cook” but knew “a woman” who could.

That individual was Leith, who agreed to write “posh recipes” for the royal, only if the publication let her write on her own pieces too. 

She filled her personal column with “every day” recipes for the public including “mince and tatties” and “bread and marmalade”.

Prue Leith was a ghostwriter for the Queen’s cousin Lady Elizabeth Ansom’s food columns (Image: GETTY)

Leith recounted the tale to Bustle in 2018 and admitted she was relieved “the editor bought” into her plan – as it helped to further her career.

But in an earlier interview, the star gave a fuller account of her time as Lady Elizabeth’s ghostwriter including when she received a fake “letter-bomb”.

Leith gave examples of her recipes of the time including an Oxford marmalade recipe, which required two tablespoons (tbs) of black treacle. 

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However, while jotting it down she “forgot to cross the T”, meaning the recipe read “2lbs” – two pounds – instead of “2tbs” for two tablespoons.

Leith told Great British Life in 2017: “You would not believe how many people do as they are told!”

The Daily Mail had to refund the cost of ingredients for furious readers after the error and two days later Leith received a suspicious package.

Great British Bake Off: Prue Leith replaced Mary Berry on the Channel 4 show after it left the BBC (Image: CHANNEL 4)

Leith claimed she “knew it was a letter bomb” because due to training she received “in the middle of the IRA bomb attacks”. 

If she could “feel something squashy” then it was “not good” and worse still, if she could “feel wires” that was “very bad news”.

Leith said: “That was exactly what I had – squashy bits and wires.”

Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood return to screens with The Great British Bake Off Stand Up To Cancer (Image: CHANNEL 4)

The whole team was evacuated and stood outside the building for “more than an hour” before being told it wasn’t a real bomb. 

After collecting the suspicious envelope, she was surprised to find “a dental brace with two teeth attached” inside.

The items were “embedded in marmalade” and next to “a very large orthodontist bill” from one angry reader.

Harry Hill, Martin Kemp, Roisin Conaty and Bill Turnbull star in The Great British Bake Off For Stand Up To Cancer, which airs at 8pm tonight on Channel 4.