Former Bake Off host Sue Perkins says she was ‘incredibly hurt and devastated’ over fall-out with Paul Hollywood
Sue Perkins has spoken of a bitter falling out between her and Paul Hollywood (Karwai Tang/WireImage/David M. Benett/Getty)
Former Great British Bake Off host Sue Perkins has reflected on her “painful” fall-out with Paul Hollywood when she and co-host Mel Giedroyc quit the show.
Mel and Sue fronted Bake Off during its time on the BBC, leaving in 2016 when it moved over to Channel 4.
Original judge Mary Berry also quit over the move, leaving Paul Hollywood to switch channels alone.
Speaking on Jessie Ware’s Table Manners podcast, Sue admitted that since then, things have turned sour between her and baking legend Paul.
“When we were there [on the show], Paul was incredibly fun — and then stuff happened that made us incredibly sad and incredibly hurt,” she said.
“But he was always like family for years and years, and it’s painful when those things end, especially in the way they did end.”
Sue Perkins doesn’t want to ‘finger point’ over Bake Off fall-out.
Sue cryptically declined to go into the specifics, but said: “I’m devastated about what happened, lots of it.
“I just feel that you become uncool [if you] start pointing the finger and you become as bad as everybody else.”
She also revealed that she would often use her mornings off from filming to create the “hero bakes” which Paul would then claim to have made himself.
“I made a lot of bread — I was quite good at making bread,” she said. “A few of the Paul Hollywood hero bakes were made by me, actually, and my mates in the prep kitchen at the back.”
Mel and Sue’s influence was central to Bake Off’s cheery, cheeky style, and the presenting duo previously revealed that they actually threatened to quit on day one because it wasn’t “kind” enough.
“We resigned, basically, because it was not a kind show,” Sue told the Radio Times last month.
“They were pointing cameras in the bakers’ faces and making them cry and saying: ‘Tell us about your dead gran.’
“So we had very stiff words about how we wanted to proceed. I think we can say that, now we’re out of it, can’t we?
“We’re quite cheesy and homespun and we just want to have a laugh. Who wants to see people crying? I don’t. Especially if you work in television and you know the mechanisms that have been used to make them cry.”
Neither she nor Mel have watched Bake Off in its Channel 4 iteration, but have reportedly given their seal of approval for new host, Matt Lucas.
