Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life
Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter
Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter
The Great British Baking Show (Great British Bake Off in the U.K.) judge Prue Leith has spoken about her experience using an injectable medication for weight loss.
Speaking in a new interview published Sunday, Leith, 85, revealed that she tried Mounjaro (Tirzepatide), dubbed the “King Kong” of weight-loss injections, after witnessing her husband, John Playfair, lose 28 pounds using it.
However, despite her husband’s success using the drug, which is primarily known for managing Type 2 diabetes in adults, Leith did not have quite the same experience.
“I did try it,” she told The Sunday Times. “I took it for two months, lost my appetite completely and didn’t shed an ounce. Nothing. Every day, I got on the scales and I still weighed exactly the same as before.”
“I hated the bloody thing, and I was tired all the time, presumably because I wasn’t eating. John said I looked thinner, which I think means old and scraggy round the face. And it’s expensive. As soon as I could, I stopped. It was terrible for me,” she continued.
‘Every day, I got on the scales and I still weighed exactly the same as before,’ Leith said (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
And while her husband was able to lose weight, she’s not thrilled about the effect the injections have had on his alcohol consumption.
“He hardly drinks now and I’m a great boozer,” Leith said. “I have two or three glasses of wine every night and he’ll only have half a glass, which he probably won’t finish. It’s a pity.”
The chef’s admission about her weight comes a few months after she spoke about her health, saying she “does not have much longer” as she is in her mid-eighties.
Speaking to Holly Rubenstein on The Travel Diaries podcast in April, the restaurateur said: “I haven’t got much longer. I’m 85 and I want to spend as much time as I can with him (Playfair).”
“So, if we are filming abroad, or like next week, we’re going to New York, because I’ve got to publicize the American baking show, then I’m now old enough for my agent to say ‘I’m sorry, but she has to ring her husband, because she’s 85, she needs someone to carry the bags,’” said Leith. “She doesn’t quite say, ‘She needs a carer,’ but it’s pretty close.”
In March, Leith also revealed that she was struggling to hear and that she had started to use hearing aids.
Last year, Leith announced that she was taking a break from the celebrity edition of the show after realizing that the filming schedule had become too intense.
