Katherine Ryan has revealed she had something of an awkward encounter with Paul Hollywood on the set of the Great British Bake Off, after making jokes about him during a previous comedy routine.
Back in 2019, the Canadian comic hosted the TV Choice Awards, and poked fun at reports in the press at that time about the long-serving Bake Off judge’s personal life during her routine.
“Bake Off is back but I can’t talk about it because Paul Hollywood has asked me to sign an NDA,” she was quoted as saying. “All I can tell is that I love his chunky nuts and his whopping loaf, he gives great penetration on the drizzle and he doesn’t shy away from giving his lady friends a sogging.”
“I’m joking. These are famous Bake Off innuendos, I’m way too old to date Paul.”
Speaking to HuffPost UK in an interview being published this weekend, Katherine said: “It was a bit soon for the type of joke, it was a bit of risky joke.
“But I had to tell it because he’s such a big celebrity and he was up for many awards, and that’s what you do at an awards show, so I sort of felt like it was worth the calculated risk.”
Two years later, Katherine was a guest on the celebrity version of Bake Off, and has shared that Paul confronted her about her past jokes while they were on set.
“When I saw him on Bake Off he said, ‘you know, I don’t really like jokes about myself, and that was a tough time for me’,” she recalled. “And I was like, ‘oh god…’.
“I was glad he confronted me about it, because he did it in a really nice way, and if someone says to me, ‘that’s not my sense of humour, I don’t like jokes being told about me’, then I will never tell jokes about them again, and that’s fair enough. But it was a bit of a hot moment… and I thought, ‘I’m definitely not going to win Bake Off now’.”
Katherine also spoke about a previous encounter with Taylor Swift, who she’s also made jokes about in the past.
“I thought, ‘well, I won’t mention it to Taylor Swift, and she won’t remember me’ – but she did remember me!” Katherine said. “And she has a really good sense of humour about herself.
“She said, ‘oh, I saw your special. I know your jokes about me and don’t worry, I had a laugh, I thought it was really funny’.”
“And that’s the intention when you do a joke like that!” Katherine added.
″[You hope] that the celebrity is famous enough, and assured in their own skin enough, that they go, ‘I know you’re just taking the mick and you didn’t mean any harm’.”
Ahead of the Oscars, Katherine Ryan is supporting Gousto’s Flavour That Pops campaign, featuring a new show-stopping menu of popcorn flavours, inspired by its best-selling recipes. Visit https://www.gousto.co.uk/blog/five-star-flavour to grab your own FREE box – perfect for film-loving-foodies!
Read our interview with Katherine Ryan in full exclusively on HuffPost UK this weekend.