‘The Price You Pay for Love’

Prue Leith is reflecting on love and loss.

During an appearance on Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the Great British Baking Show judge looked back on her longtime relationship with her first husband, Rayne Kruger, sharing how the romance began as a 13-year affair.

Kruger was married to South African actress Nan Munro, who was best friends with Leith’s mother. Leith said she’d known Kruger since she was 3 years old.

Although Leith’s family was living in South Africa and Kruger and his wife were in England, she says they were “still very close.”

When Leith moved to England to attend the Cordon Bleu Cookery School, she stayed with the couple. Kruger was 20 years younger than Munro, and 20 years older than Leith.

“I adored her and she was wonderful to me and she was like a mother to me and she couldn’t have been more welcoming,” Leith said. “But I fell in love with her husband and he with me. And so for years we kept it absolutely secret. We had a 13-year secret affair.”

“I never asked him to marry me, I never asked him to leave Nan,” Leith said. “I loved Nan. We all loved the whole family. But of course, it was living a lie for 13 years. But I knew it would be heartbreaking for her if he left and I was quite content because I was — I’d just started my restaurant and he was the chairman of my company. He’d helped me all along.”

Leith says she and Kruger were discreet about avoiding public outings, but since they worked together it would’ve been natural if they were spotted together.

“I can’t justify it, because I think it’s wrong,” she said. “I still think adultery is bad, but I wouldn’t undo it. You see, people say to me, ‘If you think it was wrong, would you do things differently?’ No, I wouldn’t. He was the most important man of my life.”

They did end up tying the knot, and were married from 1974 until Kruger’s death in 2002.

Ferguson called their love story “remarkable,” and noted that Leith has spoken eloquently about her heartbreak when Kruger died. Leith responded with a quote from Queen Elizabeth II.

“When the old queen was talking about loss, I think she was talking about Prince Philip’s death,” Leith said. “She said, ‘Grief is the price you pay for love.’ And it’s the very exact price. If you love somebody a lot, the grief is horrific” 

Reflecting on her favorite memories with Kruger, Leith said after commuting home from London to their country farmhouse, they’d typically share a special nightly ritual.

“At 7 in the evening, if we were at home, we’d meet for a drink in the summer on the terrace in the winter in the sitting room,” she said. “We would have half an hour together before I made supper or whatever. And so when he died, that 7 o’clock was the most terrible time because it was sort of so built into me after 25 years of ‘It’s 7 o’clock, I must ring Rayne.’ Because wherever I was, I’d ring him if we were not together.” 

In 2016, Leith got remarried to her current husband, John Playfair.

“He’s my toy boy,” she joked to Fergson. “He’s 76.”