Bake Off’s Prue Leith reveals taking LSD just once in her 20s left her having nightmares for DECADES and says the psychedelic drug caused ‘horrific’ hallucinations – including one where her flesh ‘melted’ from her bones
- Great British Bake Off star Prue Leith, 80, told LBC about taking drug in the 60s
- She revealed she was in her twenties at the time and took it with former husband
- The psychedelic drug sparked hallucinations and terrible nightmares afterwards
- ‘Horrific’ hallucinations made her think husband Rayne Kruger was a monster
- Candid interview saw her also admit to stripping naked in an orgy in Paris
She’s the wholesome face of Great British Bake Off but cookery doyenne Prue Leith, 80, has revealed how dabbling with LSD just once in her twenties left her plagued with nightmares and ‘horrific’ hallucinations for decades.
Leith, 80, who’s back on screens in the latest series of the popular baking show, made the shocking revelation to LBC, saying the terrifyingly realistic hallucinations that followed saw her thinking flesh had ‘melted’ from her arms.
Speaking to the London radio station, the Bake Off star said she’d taken the drug with her then husband Rayne Kruger, who died in 2002, saying: ‘It was the Sixties, there was a lot of drugs around. We used to smoke a bit of pot, not all the time and not a lot, but we did.
‘And one day, we did take acid, only once, and I must tell you, it was the most appalling experience I’ve ever had.’
Scary: Bake Off’s Prue Leith, 80, has she took LSD just once when she was in her early 20s but says the ‘appalling’ experience left her with nightmares and hallucinations for decades afterwards (Prue pictured in 2019)
Speaking with Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson on LBC, Prue admitted she only took the mind-altering drug once along with her then husband Rayne Kruger but says the hallucinations that followed left her terrified (Prue pictured in 1985)
She continued: ‘I had absolute horrific hallucinations. I couldn’t look at him because he turned into a kind of monster, and my arms, the flesh dripped off them. There was just bones left.’
Prue admitted the experience left her with nightmares for several decades and said she would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and the room would look like it was ‘sinking and shrinking’.
The candid radio interview with Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson saw Prue also recall how she once stumbled into an orgy in Paris.
The TV star admitted she stripped off so she would blend in with the crowd and walked around for about an hour before her friend reappeared and she went home.
It comes after The Great British Bake Off scored record views for Channel 4 when it returned for series 11 on September 22.
7.9 million tuned in to see Matt Lucas’ first episode as the new co-host and 12 home bakers compete in the first drama-filled challenges.
The show marked the biggest Great British Bake Off launch Channel 4 has seen since it started airing the show in 2017, following seven years at the BBC.
Ruth said: ‘I had absolute horrific hallucinations. I couldn’t look at him because he turned into a kind of monster, and my arms, the flesh dripped off them’
Tuesday night’s series premiere beat last year’s opening episode by a huge 1.3 million viewers, and surpassed the broadcaster’s first ever episode in 2017 by 500,000.
The peak of 7.9 million (average audience 6.9 million) marks Channel 4’s biggest broadcast of 2020 to date and the channel’s highest rating broadcast since the series nine final of Bake Off in 2018.
The start of Tuesday night’s show was delayed by 15 minutes to make room for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s address at 8pm, which three million people tuned in for on Channel 4.
All 12 bakers, presenters Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding, judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood along with the entire crew lived together in an isolation bubble for six weeks in order to film.
Side effects: Prue admitted the experience left her with nightmares for several decades
The production took over luxury hotel Down Hall in Hertfordshire with all cast and crew living together on site for the duration of the shoot, undergoing regular COVID-19 testing and living away from their families.
This allowed the bakers and the judges and presenters to forgo social distancing in the famous tent.
The series had already seen it’s start date pushed back by a month from its usual late August slot after filming was delayed by lockdown.
The production worked to ensure COVID-19 restrictions would not impact the close-knit nature of the show.
Success: It comes after The Great British Bake Off scored record views for Channel 4 when it returned for series 11 on September 22 with 7.9million tuning in