Great British Bake Off: Prue Leith Accidentally Revealed Winner (No Spoilers)

Great British Bake Off: Prue Leith Accidentally Revealed Winner (No Spoilers)
Prue Leith quickly deleted the tweet. (Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)
Jane Werrell
10/31/2017
Updated:
10/31/2017

Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith rushed to delete a tweet on Tuesday, Oct. 31, after she accidentally revealed the winner early.

The baker and television presenter tweeted, “No one told me judging a #gbbo final would be so emotional. I wanted them all to win.” Followed by, “Bravo” then the winner’s name.

The tweet was swiftly deleted a few seconds later, but not before many fans had noticed and shared her blunder.

She said she was “mortified” by her error, and that the tweet was early because she was confused by the time zone.

As the tweet whirled through twitterdom, Leith expressed her regret over the gaffe.

She told the the Press Association, “I’m in Bhutan. The time difference is massive. I thought that they got it six hours ago. I’m in too much of a state to talk about it.”

Bhutan is six hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

Social media users expressed a mixture of fury, sympathy, and humour at the revelation. Several users commented that the tweet “ruined” it for them.

Reality TV star Cara de la Hoyde‏ tweeted, “This is absolutely devastating let’s hope Prue is confused and thinks it’s April fools day.”

The Sun’s Dan Wootton was criticised for retweeting Leith’s remark to his 342,000 followers with the words, “OMG PRUE! No baby no!”

But many were understanding of the mistaken tweet.

These comments are likely to be a relief for executives at Channel 4, who are reportedly paying £25m ($33 million) for the show.

The final climax will be shown at 8 p.m. local time on Channel 4 on Tuesday, and is the first series to air after it transferred from BBC one.

The three finalists are Sophie Faldo, Kate Lyon, and Steven Carter-Bailey.

It’s not the first time a presenter has let slip on the winner’s name on the series. In 2015, judge Mary Berry accidentally announced the winner of the Great British Bake Off during a radio interview, per The Telegraph.

Speaking to BBC Radio Two show host Chris Evans, the 80-year-old cook named the contestants who had left the show, “Marie, Dorret, and on the first week it was lovely chap with the little hat on.”

Judge Paul Hollywood was the only original member from the BBC series.

Leith took over from veteran baker Mary Berry while Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig replaced presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins.