Prue Leith on What It Was Like to Fall in Love Again in Her 70s: ‘It Feels Just So Great’

If you’ve ever drafted a text message, deleted it, rewritten it and then placed your phone face down so you’d stop checking for a reply — congratulations, you have something in common with Prue Leith. The celebrated chef and Great British Bake Off judge, who was widowed and never expected to fall in love again, recently shared a deliciously honest account of her courtship with partner John Playfair. And it sounds less like the measured romance of two people in later life and more like the giddy uncertainty of a first crush.

Watch Episode 13 right here! ‘What Matters with Prue Leith: Being Old, Staying Curious & Loving Life’

Butterflies come at any age

For anyone who thinks romance is just for the young, Leith’s experience confirms otherwise. Falling for Playfair brought back every familiar pang of wondering, hoping and second-guessing that most of us associate with being much younger.

“It feels just so great,” Leith said. “I mean, everything happens like it happened when you were a kid. You think in the old days, you thought, you know, ring telephone, ring, is he going to ring me? And do I dare ring him, or shall I write to him? And now it’s text, you know, I’d find myself composing texts to John, and then thinking, oh no, I can’t, I don’t think, I, you know, that’s so cute forward, I won’t send that, and when will he text me, and why doesn’t he ring me in?”

The format has shifted from handwritten letters and landline calls to text messages and read receipts. The underlying anxiety — the wanting to be wanted, the fear of seeming too eager — is exactly the same.

A two-week silence across an ocean

Anyone who has ever waited for a call knows that waiting from another continent is its own special kind of torture. Just as Leith was getting to know Playfair, she had to leave for a long-planned book tour in Canada. Two weeks felt like two months.

“I spent two weeks when I went to Canada, when I just met him, and I was in Canada because I was on a book tour, and I thought, oh, I think he’s never going to, you know, this is going nowhere. He’s never going to ring, and he finally did.”

The prison, the play and a very telling leg

When Playfair did call, the invitation that followed led to one of the more unusual first proper dates you’ll ever hear about. Leith’s son and his wife ran a prison charity that taught inmates skills, with an emphasis on drama. They were staging a play inside a prison, and Leith asked Playfair to come along.

The venue wasn’t exactly built for romance.

“In this prison, the theater, the stage wasn’t a proper theater, it was a room with ordinary chairs set side by side, so I was sitting in one chair next to John and my son, the other side,” she said.

What followed was a complete failure to follow the plot.

“I couldn’t watch the play because I was so conscious that I was sitting next to John all the time, and I could hardly, I could hardly concentrate. I couldn’t tell you anything about what the play was about.”

And then there was the leg.

“What’s more, I began to think because his leg was next to my leg, see, and I was thinking, is that pressure deliberate, or is it just because we’re so squashed in this, we’re all, we’re all in, in this, you know, in this room.”

It’s the universal folding-chair dilemma. Is the contact intentional? Is it just geometry? Do you move? Do you stay? Do you press back, just slightly, to test the theory?

Leith stayed. Her patience was rewarded.

“Anyhow, I’m glad to say, the pressure was deliberate.”

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This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 10:30 AM.