Stacey Hart's time on The Great British Bake Off came to an end this week, as she became the latest baker to leave the tent. The 42-year-old fell at the final hurdle as judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith eliminated her in the semi-final round. And while Stacey might have survived nine weeks in the competition, viewers are only now discovering her surprising secret. It has been revealed that Stacey's husband James is one of the founding directors of the hugely popular fashion company ASOS. James and three other colleagues set up the clothing giant in 2000 and sold their shares for in 2012 for £50million. Since then, he has been running children's company Kidly.
© Photo: TwitterGreat British Bake Off star Stacey Hart with her husband, ASOS co-founder James
Stacey was seen leaving the show on Tuesday night's episode after failing to impress the judges with her bakes. Speaking about her exit, she admitted: "Going back to being a full-time mum to three boys was actually quite nice. I thought at the end of my time in the tent I wouldn't bake for a while, but I did the very next day and I haven't stopped since."
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Stacey's departure wasn’t without its controversy; viewers were left outraged when judge Paul broke a golden rule to send home the former star baker, telling Prue, Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig that the competition was so close they needed to consider bakes produced on previous weeks – something he has said he will never do. "Initially we have to have a look at this weekend and if that still has not drawn any obvious answer, it is so close, then yes you look back retrospectively on the while series. It has only happened a couple of times," he said.
Stacey became the ninth baker to leave the competition
Fans quickly took to Twitter to discuss the decision, with one writing: "Paul, if you look back on the weeks of this year's bake off then all you will see is how wrong you were in your previous decisions." Another wrote: "I agree Steven should be in the final, but changing the rules to keep him in because he had a bad week isn't right." A third lamented the loss of former contestant Liam, who was eliminated last week: "Why didn't they judge previous weeks last week & save Liam? #fix #gbbo… Steven deserved to go this week!"
