Great British Bake Off star Sandi Toksvig shocked fans back in 2020 when she announced her departure from the beloved baking show after joining in 2017. At the time, the TV personality said that it was due to pursuing other projects, but she has now gone into detail about the real reason she decided to leave the show - and has also revealed that she is no longer in contact with her co-star, Noel Fielding.
Chatting on the Stirring it Up podcast, she explained: “I was just getting depressed, and it’s about integrity. If you have that, then you can sleep. If you have integrity and you think ‘I’m doing a good thing, I’m doing a good thing for other people, I’m being good to my friends, my family,’ then that’s fine. There’s no money in the world that can then take that from you.”
She added: “I mean, no disrespect to people, but watching meringue dry and being told how many different kinds there are, I honestly thought I was going out of my mind. I would ring [my wife] Deb and go ‘Hey Deb, I’m going crazy, I am going crazy.’ Because a five-hour bake, which is 20 minutes on telly, is five hours long.”
Sandi also told the show’s hosts, Miquita and Andi Oliver, that it was the “biggest paycheck of [her] life.”
© Dominic Lipinski - PA ImagesAt the time, she tweeted about her decision to leave, saying: “When stepping down from a job, it is quite common for people to say they are doing so in order to spend more time with their family. Unusually, I am departing from the Great British Bake Off so I can spend more time with my other work.
“Spending time with Prue, Paul, and Noel has been one of the great pleasures of my life. These are friendships which I know will continue beyond the confines of television.”
Sandi and Noel originally took over as co-hosts when the show moved to Channel 4, replacing duo Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins. Mary Berry stood down in the same year and was replaced by professional chef and restaurateur Prue Leith. In a recent interview with The Times, Sandi said that she and Prue were still joined at the hip. When asked about Paul Hollywood, she said: "Not so much. He’s so busy. He drives cars so fast it’s impossible to catch him," before bluntly saying: "No," when asked if she was still pals with Noel.
Paul previously opened up about his sadness at Sandi’s exit, saying: “We had this wonderful selection of books, and she would [knit] little figures. So she made lots of those. She wrote a few scripts. She did a lot of other things… It was a surprise and I was really upset. I’m very fond of Sandi.
“She was never too busy to sit down, have a chat, and put the world to rights. We shared a couple of drinks and had some good times together. I’m going to miss her.”
