09 March 2024 , 11:00
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Dame Prue Leith, 83, sparked a huge backlash after admitting to drowning a litter of kittens.
The Great British Bake Off judge who fronts Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen on ITV, made the admission in her 2022 memoir I'll Try Anything Once: My Life on a Plate. In the book she wrote: “My mother and I, then 11, had just drowned some kittens… and for weeks I imagined those poor dead creatures.
“Too many kittens was a frequent occurrence and there had come a day when my mother, unable to find homes for yet another litter, decided to drown the latest batch.” Prue recalled trying to persuade her mother against it, but her protests “were met with a firm, ‘Darling, it has to be done. They are only a few hours old. They will hardly know it’s happening’”. However, Prue recalled the helpless animals "fought like the devil for life".
Prue subsequently addressed the backlash to the "extremely traumatic experience" as she stated she'd become "public enemy No. 1" as a result of the revelation. "They don't read the story and they feed off each other," she told PEOPLE.
Prue is a judge on the Great British Bake Off with Paul Hollywood (Channel 4)"Somebody says, 'My God! That woman drowns kittens!' And it just spiralled from there. It was so awful because people were saying things like, 'I'll never watch Bake Off again.' I mean, what's it got to do with Bake Off? Bake Off is the kindest, most inclusive, most friendly show in the world."
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The Great British Bake Off judge claimed the horrific incident was a normal occurrence in 1940s South Africa in a bid to maintain the cat population. Prue explained she believed her mum "thought it would be a life lesson" but instead it was the "most traumatic, awful, horrible experience".
"I can't bear the thought that people on Twitter really think that I would want to drown kittens," she added. Meanwhile, Prue argued that the Channel 4 baking competition "wouldn't have me on if they thought I was a kitten drowner".
At the time of the backlash, Prue told HuffPost UK, who originally printed the excerpt: "I wrote about it honestly in my book. As an 11-year-old, it was an extremely traumatic experience, not one I would forget; however, it is what happened 70 years ago. Thankfully today in the U.K. we have the choice of neutering our cats and have more options to home kittens."
Prue recently addressed her future with Great British Bake Off amid concerns the beloved programme could move to Netflix due to Channel 4's "money woes". Prue told the Mirror: "Oh my God, I hope to stick with Bake Off wherever it goes. But I don't think it will move.
"I know a lot of people are having a hard time of it and Channel 4 has lost a lot of shows. But I am quite sure while Channel 4 is there, they will hang on to Bake Off. It is certainly one of their best shows. I think it has found its natural home at Channel 4."
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