Great British Bake Off’s Dan Beasley-Harling has left the tent—and fans are distraught
Dan won people over during his time on the programme (channel 4)
Gay stay-at-home dad Dan Beasley-Harling has been eliminated from Great British Bake Off.
Supporters were left bereft after the 36-year-old father-of-two—who had captured many viewers’ hearts—exited at the end of Pastry Week, with his festive samosas and salmon coulibiac failing to impress the judges.
Beasley-Harling, who was one of the favourites after being crowned Star Baker two weeks ago, lasted six of season nine’s 10 episodes.
Dan was axed from the show last night (Channel 4)
But at least GBBO‘s queer fans with huge crushes on Ruby and Manon can rest easy, with their favourites still alive and kicking in the competition.
Reacting to his elimination, Beasley-Harling said: “That was expected. I’ve had some good moments.
“Sometimes as a stay-at-home parent you don’t get to do much but it’s been nice to do something for me.”
“Love you all” (dbeasleyharling/twitter)
Writing on Twitter, the Londoner added: “Thanks for all the love and kind words, everybody—genuinely touching and unexpected. Love you all xxx.”
His fans expressed their disappointment about him leaving the show, with one writing: “nooooooooooooooooooooo! just caught up and am devastated to see dan go. i’ll be sulking for the rest of the month!”
“Just caught up and am devastated to see Dan go” (demonbiker12/twitter)
One person wrote: “The GBBO will be a poorer place without you x. You cheered up my Tuesday.”
“You cheered up my Tuesday” (twitter/dbh)
Another said: “I was shouting at the tv. While you didn’t deserve that, I’m convinced you’re going to go so far. You are SO talented and so charismatic and wonderful x.”
You are SO talented and so charismatic and wonderful (optimusbodog/twitter)
Earlier in the season, Beasley-Harling hit out at the “insidious casual homophobia” he has received since appearing on the show.
He wrote on Twitter that being targeted by anti-gay trolls online had been “the most disheartening part of this experience.”
He added: “I’m blessed that I don’t encounter these attitudes very often in my daily life, but it’s clear that as a community we have so much more work to do #lgbt.”
Newcastle’s The Sunday Post attracted ridicule last month after stating that GBBO had turned Beasley-Harling into “a hot dish of the day with mums at his kids’ school.”
Dan took the article well (dbeasleyharling/twitter)
The amateur baker told the newspaper that the show came “with the side benefit that the alpha mums at the school gate now come and say hello!”
The Sunday Post slightly misinterpreted this innocent statement, reporting his comments under the headline: “Dan’s the man that all mums want to chat up.”
In the article, the paper added: “Dan Beasley-Harling says the show has turned him into a hot dish of the day with mums at his kids’ school.”
The baker’s tweet tickled his followers, with one writing: “If by ‘chat up’ they mean ‘live the dream baking/celeb-ing/parenting life vicariously through’ then yeah, for sure .”
Dan has two children (Dan Beasley-Harling/facebook)
The proud father previously admitted that he applied to go on GBBO for “entirely selfish” reasons, explaining that, with his youngest son starting school, he was “ready to rejoin the world of adults.”
“I have been at home looking after the kids for the last six years, so it was a chance to do something for myself,” he said.
“I bake in the little spare time that I have, and often work on bakes over the course of several days.”
