Prue Leith

Prue Leith was married to author and property developer Rayne Kruger from 1974 until his death in 2002. They had two children, filmmaker Li-Da Kruger and Danny Kruger, who became a politician and Member of Parliament.

In October 2016, Leith married John Playfair, a retired clothes designer. The couple initially lived in separate homes before building a house together in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire.

Leith was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and moved to London in 1960 to study at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School. Before that, she studied at the University of Cape Town and the Sorbonne in Paris.

Her early business career began with a company supplying business lunches, parties and events. This developed into Leith's Good Food, a successful party and event catering company.

In 1969, Leith opened Leith's, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Notting Hill, London. She ran the restaurant for 25 years before selling it in 1995. In 1975, she founded Leith's School of Food and Wine, which trained professional chefs and amateur cooks. She later helped establish the Prue Leith Chef's Academy and Prue Leith Culinary Institute in South Africa.

Leith was the first woman appointed to the British Railways Board in 1980. She worked on improving its catering division, Travellers Fare, and later served as a non-executive director of organisations including Safeway, Whitbread, Woolworths and the Halifax. She also chaired bodies including the Restaurants Association, the Royal Society of Arts and Forum for the Future.

Alongside her business activities, Leith wrote food columns for the Daily Mail, Sunday Express, The Guardian and Daily Mirror. Her books include 12 cookery books, the cookbook Leith's Cookery Bible, the memoir Relish and eight novels, including The Food of Love, The Prodigal Daughter and The Lost Son.

Leith served as a judge on The Great British Menu for 11 years before joining The Great British Bake Off in 2017, replacing Mary Berry when the programme moved to Channel 4. She remained a judge through 2025. Her television work has also included My Kitchen Rules, Junior Bake Off and Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen. She was Chancellor of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, from 2016 to 2024.

Leith has worked extensively to improve food education. While chair of the Royal Society of Arts, she founded Focus on Food, a charity promoting cooking in schools, and helped establish the Hoxton Apprentice with Training for Life. The not-for-profit restaurant trained long-term unemployed people as chefs and waiters.

She chaired the government’s School Food Trust from 2007 to 2010. The organisation oversaw the quality and healthiness of food bought, cooked and served in schools. She has also supported organisations working on sustainable food, healthy eating for infants and better hospital catering.

After the death of her brother David from bone cancer in 2012, Leith began campaigning for the legalisation of assisted dying in Britain. She is a patron of Dignity in Dying and spoke in Parliament on the subject in 2023. That year, she also made the documentary Prue and Danny's Death Road Trip with her son Danny, who holds opposing views on assisted dying.

Leith was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1989 and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2010. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to food, broadcasting and charity.

She has received 13 honorary degrees or fellowships from British universities and won the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year Award in 1990. During her time as chair of the Royal Society of Arts, she led the campaign that established the use of Trafalgar Square's empty plinth for changing contemporary art installations.