Prue Leith Recalls the ‘Awful’ Grief of Losing Her 1st Husband, Shares Their Unique Love Story

Prue Leith and her first husband Rayne Kruger’s love story is one for the ages.

The Great British Baking Show star opened up about her late spouse on the Tuesday, August 12, episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson‘s Dinner’s on Me podcast. While reflecting on his 2002 death at the age of 80, Leith said the grief she suffered was “awful.”

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

She went on to note that, unlike herself, Kruger was “very reclusive,” which led them to purchase a farmhouse in the English countryside that was “miles from anyone else.” During their marriage, Leith said she and Kruger made it a tradition to spend time together every day at 7 p.m., whether in person or via phone when one was away.

“And so, when he died, that seven o’clock was the most terrible time because it was sort of so built in to me after 25 years of, ‘It’s seven o’clock, I must ring Rayne,'” she said. “Because wherever I was, I’d ring him if we were not together.”

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On the podcast, Leith also looked back at her and Kruger’s unique relationship beginnings. Not only did Leith know Kruger since she was 3 years old, but she had a “13-year secret affair” with him while he was married to South African actress Nan Munro.

“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 of Munro. “But I fell in love with her husband, and he with me. And so for years we kept it absolutely secret.”

Though she and Kruger were “very discreet,” Leith said it was not uncommon for the two of them to been seen with each other because they worked together.

“I can’t justify it because I think it’s wrong. I still think adultery is bad, but I wouldn’t undo it,” Leith told Ferguson. “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 in my life.”

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According to Leith, the only reason she and Kruger revealed their affair was because she became pregnant. (The couple welcomed their son, Danny, in 1974 and adopted their daughter, Li-Da, the following year.)

Leith says Munro empathized with her after the affair news broke, as her own relationship with Kruger was initially met with disapproval. “I just said, ‘I’m desperately sorry, but I couldn’t help it, and I wouldn’t change it,'” she shared. “And she said, ‘Well, I understand that.’ She said, ‘When I first met Rain and he wanted to marry me, my mother was saying, ‘Nan, you can’t marry him, he’s 20 years younger than you, it’ll never work.’ And she said, ‘If I have five years of him, it will have been worth it. I love him so much, I’ve got to marry him.’ So she did, and they had 25 years.”

Leith was married to Kruger from 1974 until he died in 2002. She went on to wed her husband, John Playfair, in 2016.

“He’s my toy boy. He’s 76,” Leith said of her partner, who is nine years her junior, on the podcast.