Former Great British Bake Off host Sandi Toksvig has spoken candidly about what led to her exit from the hit competition show.
Sandi joined Bake Off in 2017 after it made the jump to Channel 4 from the BBC, presenting alongside Noel Fielding for three series.
At the time, the QI host said she was leaving the Bake Off tent to “spend more time with my other work”, but during a new interview with Radio Times, she admitted she was beginning to grow tired of the show before her departure.
“To be honest, I left Bake Off because I stopped having fun,” she told the magazine. “I was literally standing there watching meringues dry and thinking, ‘Oh my God, my brain is atrophying’.
“So after three years, I thought, ‘That’ll do, go and do something else!’.”
“I’m in love enough with the business to think, ‘OK, that’s a nice pay cheque, but it doesn’t work for me. I’ll move on and do something else’,” she added.
Sandi went on to say that she hasn’t been in touch with the team at Bake Off since she left, and also hasn’t watched the show in that time.
“I don’t like cake,” she admitted. “But if somebody makes The Great British Cheese Off, I’m in.”
Bake Off staple Paul Hollywood claimed back in 2020 he’d been left “surprised” and “really upset” by Sandi’s exit.
“I’m very fond of Sandi. She was never too busy to sit down, have a chat and put the world to rights. We shared a couple of drinks and had some good times together,” he recalled.
Sandi was eventually replaced by Matt Lucas, who fronted three seasons before announcing he, too, was leaving.
He’s since been succeeded by daytime favourite Alison Hammond, who made her debut at the helm of Bake Off last year.
Read Sandi Toksvig’s interview in full in the new issue of Radio Times, on sale now.