Dame Mary Berry does not watch The Great British Bake Off
Dame Mary Berry served as a judge on The Great British Bake Off from 2010 until 2016.
Dame Mary Berry avoids watching The Great British Bake Off.
The show's former judge says the programme is the last thing her 93-year-old husband, Paul J.M. Hunnings, would want to see after working with food all day long.
Mary - who quit The Great British Bake Off in 2016 before it moved from the BBC to Channel 4 the following year - told the Daily Star newspaper: "I don't think it's fair on my husband. We're testing recipes all the time, thinking what's going in the next book.
"It's not fair in the evening to turn on a cooking show as he's seen quite enough of it."
The food expert - who cast a critical eye over the aspiring bakers with 60-year-old chef Paul Hollywood - was replaced by Dame Prue Leith.
Restaurateur Prue, 86, announced her departure from The Great British Bake Off in January, with food writer Nigella Lawson, 66, now on judging duties with Paul.
And Mary is "absolutely delighted" that Nigella will be on the programme's 2026 series - expected to air in mid-to-late September.
Speaking at January's the Radio Times Covers Party 2026, Mary said: "I’ve also recently heard Nigella Lawson is the new Bake Off judge, and I’m absolutely delighted.
"It will give Bake Off a wonderful new flavour, and Paul and her will get on like a house on fire."
Offering her advice to Nigella, she said: "The skill to be the judge and to be fair, be kind and encourage everyone to enjoy baking."
Prue told the Daily Star that Nigella will be "very different", adding: "But she's a class act, she really knows what she's doing.
"She knows her onions - people will expect her to know about cake, which she certainly does, but what they won't expect is how clever she is, how sharp, witty - she's really erudite.
"She's a fantastically clever woman."
Nigella will leave all the “technical” judging to Paul and focus on the “eating", as she does not “look for fault”.
Appearing on the January 29 episode of ITV's This Morning, she said: "I feel that I'm not someone who looks for fault.
"I look for pleasure as a basic. That is my basic - I wouldn’t say it's philosophy - my basic attitude in life.
"And I feel that Paul Hollywood is, you know, Mr. Technical. I'm all about the eating. You know, if I see my job as eating, I feel it's not so it's not too daunting. I can eat."
As well as Paul, Nigella will join The Great British Bake Off's hosts, Noel Fielding, 52, and 51-year-old Alison Hammond.
And Nigella is "really looking forward" to being a part of the team.
She shared: "Well, I'm really looking forward to it. Listen, I think Prue is just fantastic, and Mary Berry was fantastic before.
"So if I think about it like that, I do, then I feel like, 'Oh no', you know, I get really frightened.
"So I've just got to say, you know, that they have given me the honour of offering me this, and I just want to do it as well as I can, and just, you know, become a part of it and enjoy it.
"I'm very excited about meeting all these new bakers to come. And that's it. It is very much about them [on] the show, and that's how that's what I love about it as well. You know, lots of competition programmes can be a bit hard edge, and it's [not that]."
