Dame Prue Leith, chef, TV host and author of “Being Old… And Learning to Love It!”, has opened up about starting a new relationship at 70.
Leith shared the experience of meeting her partner, John Playfair, and the “anxiety” that comes with falling in love – at any age.
Leith Describes The Importance Of Love
Getty“Love is such an important part of everybody’s happiness. I don’t think you can be happy without love,” the former “Great British Bake Off” told Hello! Magazine.
“I eat well, I sleep well – and I love well.”
However, Leith stressed that it doesn’t necessarily have to be romantic love that keeps you young.
It can also be “something that really motivates you, whether it’s oak trees or breeding dogs, but you have to have something that you really love.”
In Leith’s case, one thing in her life that she really loves is her husband, John Playfair, who she met at a dinner party in 2011. Her first husband, Robert Krueger, passed away when she was 62.
“What’s surprising is that people don’t get that falling in love at 70 is no different from falling in love at 17,” she explained.
“It’s exactly the same anxiety: ‘Will he ring? Shall I text him?'”
Dame Prue On Playfair: “He’s A Sexy Fellow”
GettyLeith, now 86, married Playfair in 2016, and she describes him as her “best friend.”
“If your lover, husband or wife is also your best friend, that does make a huge difference,” she said.
“John and I share a lot of interests. We could build a house together and not quarrel at all about the decor because we always like the same things.”
Playfair, a former fashion designer, also supports Leith’s famously flamboyant style; he’s even built her a “necklace wall” for her statement pieces.
“I’m very lucky: he likes fashion, he likes shopping. He buys all my clothes, he made my necklace wall and he buys most of my necklaces, too. I’m his project,” she shared.
Sweetly, Playfair also complements her style, matching his boutonnieres to her colorful outfits. “He always matches them to whatever I’m wearing. I’m really touched,” she said. “He’s a sexy fellow.”
The two now enjoy a simple life together in the Cotswolds.
“We don’t live that life,” she says of the Cotswolds celebrity scene, which includes neighbor Jeremy Clarkson.
“One of the good things is that the food [in the Cotswolds] has improved enormously, but there’s also a pub we go to mostly because it still does ham, egg and chips.”
