Mary Berry, 88, has made a few bombshell revelations about her husband Paul Hunnings in the past, from dating multiple people at the start of their relationship to his three proposals.
Her latest confession revealed that The Great British Bake Off star's family also had reservations about Paul. Mary joked that their first Christmas together after her 1996 wedding saw her mother have a "dreadful" reaction to his choice of presents.
Speaking about her memorable Christmas gift, she told Good Housekeeping ahead of the release of her new book, Mary Makes It Easy: "Not long after Paul and I got married, we went to my parents' house and at the time I was beginning to get very keen on gardening.
"On Christmas Day, Paul gave me a big tub of chicken pellets, which are fertiliser, and it was all wrapped up in paper. My mother saw me open it and looked at Paul as if to say, 'How could you?' She thought it was dreadful, but I was thrilled!"
The cookbook writer has previously shared details of their love story, cheekily revealing to Sue Perkins on An Hour or So With podcast back in October 2019 that she initially kept her "options open."
"Paul was a friend of my brother's. And I met him and we sort of did things together," she said, adding: "But I had another boyfriend in Bath, and he was in London and I used to go home at the weekend... Paul was the London one and I had a Bath one, actually there were several in Bath. You keep your options open."
Antique dealer Paul proposed a whopping three times before Mary agreed to marry him. Discussing the reason for her rejections, she said in her latest interview that Paul's proposals were fuelled by alcohol, which she used as an excuse.
"He would always ask when he'd just been in the pub or after he'd taken me out to supper somewhere - and I always thought he'd had too much to drink. I used to say, 'You're drunk!' because I didn't want to make up my mind. But I'm very happy now that I said yes," she said.
Mary had also previously elaborated on Paul's reaction to the situation. "Well I might have been [drunk]" said Paul on the subject of the first time he popped the question. "It's a big step. You don't go into something like that without a bit of fortification."
She continued: "I think you had too much and I can remember telling you you were drunk and thinking 'I'm not going to have anything to do with this man.' But you came back." The third time was the charm after he told her, "'I'm getting on in age, so either it's yes or no."
The couple got married in 1966 at Charlcombe Church near Mary's parents' home in Bath, with unearthed photos showing the bride in a long-sleeved dress with an embellished waist that cost her just five pounds.
They welcomed children Thomas, Annabel and William, but William sadly passed away in a car crash at the age of 19.
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