Prue Leith has opened up about her relationship with her late husband Rayne Kruger, and admits their romance began as a years-long affair.
The Great British Bake Off judge recalls she had "a long affair" with Ranye, who was the husband of her mother's best friend, before he passed away aged 80 in 2002. The 82-year-old insisted that she never pressured the property developer to leave his wife, but after years he left actress Nan Munro for Prue.
The Mirror reports that while Prue was initially apprehensive about including the affair with her late husband in her memoir, she ultimately decided to tell the whole truth. The South African star also revealed the surprising but 'extraordinary' reaction Nan had to the situation after she uncovered the affair.
"I never asked him to leave his wife because I was very happy," Prue confessed to Kate Thornton on the White Wine Question Time podcast. "I had none of the duties of life and all of the pleasures of somebody who loved me. I wasn’t pressing for marriage. They all remained great friends."
She continued: "We did have 13 secret years and nobody ever guessed because we were discreet.
"But it was easier in a way because he was a family friend, chairman of my company, and he’d helped me enormously and everyone knew we were great friends."
She added: "We didn’t go out to dinner or anything that would create any kind of suspicion. If people saw us together they thought it was because we worked together."
Prue goes on to explain Nan's 'extraordinary' reaction after discovering the affair, and how they all remained close friends despite the betrayal.
Prue added: "Rayne was determined. He said ‘We don’t have enough friends to lose them. We all love each other, we’re not going to let this destroy us’. And Nan took her cue from Rayne, or he from her.
"I remember one of her really famous actress friends said to her ‘How can you go and have weekends and stay with Prue and Rayne? That woman, she’s a witch, she stole your husband.'
"And Nan said ‘Are you going to have me every weekend? Shall I come to you instead?’ She said ‘They are my friends, I love them. 'Yes, it’s been hard, but Prue’s still Prue.' She was amazingly forgiving. And an extraordinary woman."
Prue was 62 when Rayne died in 2002, she married English fashion designer John Playfair in 2016.
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