Paul Hollywood has admitted that he was "horrified" when Prue Leith accidentally revealed the winner of the Great British Bake Off hours before the final on Tuesday. Chatting on Channel 4's An Extra Slice, he said: "What can you say? I was horrified. She's made a mistake," adding: "She was in the Himalayas apparently."
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Paul opened up about Prue's mistake
Prue had been in Bhutan at the time, and tweeted congratulating the winner after getting the time difference mixed up. The presenter of An Extra Slice, Jo Brand, poked fun at Prue's gaffe on Thursday evening, saying: "Unfortunately Prue can't be with us as she's too busy deleting her Twitter account… I've had a text from Prue and apparently the winner [of next year's show] is somebody called Malcolm."
Prue told the Press Association: "The time difference is massive. I thought that they got it six hours ago." After deleting her original tweet where she congratulated the winner, she wrote: "I am so sorry to the fans of the show for my mistake this morning, I am in a different time zone and mortified by my error #GBBO." A spokesperson for Channel 4 said: "Prue has just tweeted an apology to fans. We have no further comment."
Recipe of the week: John Whaite's pecan, cranberry and dark chocolate pie
The winner, Sophie, also appeared on the show
The competition's winner, Sophie Faldo, said she had "no hard feelings" over the mistake, telling Newsbeat: "That did come as a little bit of a surprise. All it meant for me was that everyone knew a little bit too early. I really do feel bad for Prue because she must be feeling terrible about it." She added that she had been in contact with Prue to "put her mind at ease". Prue has confirmed that she will returning as a judge in the next series alongside Paul and hosts Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding.