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Fans of The Great British Bake Off, <\/em>known as The Great British Baking Show <\/em>in the United States, were shocked when it was announced <\/a>the judge Prue Leith<\/strong> would be stepping away from her role and would not return for the upcoming season. Now Leith is opening up about her decision.<\/p>\n The Michelin-starred chef appeared <\/a>on The Shift with Same Baker<\/em>, where she discussed her career and the reasoning behind her exit.<\/p>\n During the conversation, Leith was asked why now felt like the right time to step away. \u201cI have been dithering for a couple of years now,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n Leith revealed that she had actually been considering leaving the Bake Off <\/em>franchise for over two years. \u201cI just thought, you know, I’d like to have more time off in the summer,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, two years ago, I wrote to them just saying, “Look, I need more time off and I need I haven’t had a summer holiday for eight years or something. So, I really think I better if I stop.\u2019<\/p>\n At the time, Leith was juggling multiple projects within the franchise, including The Great American Baking Show <\/em>and The Great British Bake Off: Stand Up to Cancer<\/em>.<\/p>\n However, producer offered her an alternative. \u2018Why don’t you just give up one, preferably celebrity, because that would give you the middle of the summer off.\u2019 So, I said, \u2018Great!\u2019<\/p>\n Leith admitted she hadn\u2019t realized that compromise was even an option, \u201cI was thrilled. that hadn’t occurred to me. I thought it was all or nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s exactly what she did, until a recent vacation shifted her perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cI went to Madagascar. It was just so wonderful, it was a real proper holiday,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no jet skis, no motorboats, no bars, no music<\/a>. It was just peaceful and lovely. And I thought, I really need more of this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The experience solidified her decision.<\/p>\n \u201cI realized that if I went on I would be unlikely to get a holiday in Italy or in France or in Portugal or in Spain or all of these other wonderful locations.\u201d<\/p>\n Thus she went ahead and informed production of her decision to step away from the franchise. \u201cSo I thought it is ridiculous. I should stop dithering and just do it, so I did.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, Leith said the transition has been a positive one. \u201cEverything worked out for the best, \u201cthey were fine about it and they’ve got the wonderful Nigella so everyone is happy.\u201d<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfac SIGN UP for Parade\u2019s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\ud83c\udfac<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n As Parade previously reported<\/a>, Nigella Lawson <\/strong>has been positioned to replace Leith in the upcoming season of Bake Off<\/em> airing later this year.<\/p>\n The Great British Baking Show <\/em>is streaming on Netflix<\/a>.<\/p>\n This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Mar 17, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aol.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fans of The Great British Bake Off, known as The Great British Baking Show in the United States, were shocked when it was announced the judge Prue Leith would be stepping away from her role and would not return for the upcoming season. Now Leith is opening up about her decision. The Michelin-starred chef appeared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2332841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[349596],"class_list":["post-2332840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-prue-leith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Prue-Leith-Reveals-Why-She-Left-Bake-Off.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2332840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2332842,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332840\/revisions\/2332842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2332841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2332840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2332840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2332840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}