Prue Leith is breaking her silence on backlash she received after recounting a traumatic childhood experience in her recently published memoir.
TheGreat British Baking Showjudge made headlines last month when she recalled in the book,I’ll Try Anything Once, a time that hermother made her drown a litter of newborn kittenswhile growing up on their farm in South Africa.
It was a seminal moment in the 82-year-old’s life, and one that she said haunted her. But when theThe Huffington Post UKpublished an excerpt ahead of the book’s release, social media users quickly shared their thoughts on the matter, lodging complaints about Leith’s “disturbing behavior” and questioning her role on the long-running baking competition series.
“I became public enemy No. 1,” Leith tells PEOPLE, looking back on the uproar. “They don’t read the story and they feed off each other. Somebody says, ‘My God! That woman drowns kittens!’ And it just spiraled from there.”
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The chef went on to note that while some social media posts were “awful,” it was the criticism connected toThe Great British Baking Show, which is currently on its 10th season, that she found most upsetting.
She spoke about the heartwarming nature of the Netflix-distributed show — known in the U.K. asThe Great British Bake-Off— saying, “It was so awful because people were saying things like, ‘I’ll never watchBake Offagain.’ I mean, what’s it got to do withBake-Off?Bake-Offis the kindest, most inclusive, most friendly show in the world. They wouldn’t have me on if they thought I was a kitten drowner.”
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The cookbook author says she doesn’t recall nor does she fully understand why her mother made her watch. “I don’t know how it happened, but one day my mother said, ‘We have to drown these little kittens.’ And I guess perhaps she thought it would be a life lesson for me,” says Leith, who was 11 at the time. “It was the most traumatic, awful, horrible experience.”
In her memoir, Leith wrote what led her mother to the decision. “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,” she said.
She added that she tried to stop her mother but instead was “met with a firm, ‘Darling, it has to be done. They are only a few hours old. They will hardly know it’s happening.’ "
“For weeks I imagined those poor dead creatures,” Leith shared.
Now, she looks back at the experience as one that helped shape her. “Thankfully today in the U.K. we have the choice of neutering our cats and have more options to home kittens, although sadly in some parts of the world it is still an issue,” she told the Huffington Post UK in a statement last month.
As for those critics who didn’t take time to read her account, Leith firmly tells PEOPLE: “I can’t bear the thought that people on Twitter really think that I would want to drown kittens.”
When asked how she deals with any kind of controversy, Leith tells PEOPLE that explaining her side of the story helps. “Talking to [the media] is quite cathartic because I can actually explain what really happened,” she says.
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Leith’s book also details her career, including opening several restaurants, founding culinary schools and writing food columns and cookbooks.
Her most recent project is a new cookbook,Bliss on Toast. The book features 75 recipes and is a project Leith started during the COVID-19 lockdown when she “realized very quickly that anything that tastes good the first time around tastes even better on toast the second time around.”
When asked about her vast career, Leith shares her go-to professional advice.
“My whole career has been a matter of just being unable to say no,” Leith tells PEOPLE. “If somebody has an idea and I think it’s a good one, I want to do it.”
source: people.com
