Dame Prue Leith’s daughter Li-Da Kruger has shared a glimpse of the “idyllic” childhood she shared with her Great British Bake Off star mother.
The TV personality, 80, adopted Li-Da, then 16 months old and now 48, from Cambodia with her late husband Rayne Kruger and raised her in the Cotswolds with her biological son Danny, 50 years, a conservative MP.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Li-Da, who has since adopted two children with her husband Matt, recalled how her upbringing was “really wonderful”, as she grew up in the family’s huge house with nannies and “everything they wanted” .
But while her mother may have been a prominent restaurateur and food writer, Prue often served very ordinary dishes that surely wouldn’t earn a handshake from Paul Hollywood.
Li-Da said: ‘People always ask, “What did we eat?” I do remember that we ate, like everyone else, fish fingers and roast beans, that disgusting frozen fish in parsley sauce.
But when it came to discipline, he admitted that it was his late father, a South African author who died in 2002 at age 80, who was the strictest.
Dame Prue Leith’s daughter Li-Da Kruger has shared a surprising insight into the ‘idyllic’ childhood she shared with her Great British Bake Off star mother (pictured together)
The TV personality, 80, adopted 16-month-old Li-Da (pictured) from Cambodia with her late husband Rayne Kruger and raised her in the Cotswolds with her biological son Danny.
She laughed: “My father was Edwardian, he was literally born in 1922 and, when I look back on my childhood, it was quite strict.”
“Lunchtime was a certain time every day, we went to bed ridiculously early, we had to go to sleep in the afternoon,” something he now jokes “sounds like paradise.”
‘We had rules, my father was very regimented but that’s not bad, punctuality is important.’
Li-Da also explained how she was fiercely protective of her famous mother, who was catapulted into the spotlight after joining the Great British Bake Off and replacing her partner Dame Mary Berry in 2017, after 11 years of presenting on the Great British Menu. the BBC.
“It’s disturbing, because if you’re in the public eye and thousands of people say horrible things, instead of one person saying horrible things.”
She continued, “So it’s annoying and I want to protect her from that” before joking that she often tells her mother not to say certain things at a time to avoid controversy.
Prue, who married John Playfair in 2016, infamously sent out a tweet congratulating 2017 Bake Off winner Sophie Faldo before the show aired, which she later described as the “worst day of her life”.
Li-Da also spoke of her childhood in the leafy Cotswolds as a Cambodian child, admitting she “thought I was white” before looking in the mirror.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Li-Da, who has since adopted two children with her husband Matt, recalled how her childhood was “really wonderful”.
But while her mother may have been a leading restaurateur and food writer, Prue (pictured in 1991) often served very ordinary dishes that surely wouldn’t earn a handshake from Paul Hollywood.
But when it came to discipline, he admitted it was his late father, a South African author who died in 2002 aged 80, who was the strictest parent (pictured as a family).
“It wasn’t a problem but I wanted what everyone wanted, which was blonde hair,” I asked Father C.Christmas For a blonde wig I think a year. “I just wanted to fit in, because I always looked very different from my family.”
“They would ask me where you come from and it didn’t faze me, because depending on my mood, I would say ‘I’m from Oxford’, but then they would ask me ‘where are you really from?'” And apparently that’s very common among adoptees.
Li-Da said she recommends adoption to anyone, even those who can conceive naturally.
“After you’ve done IVF and the adoption process, the wonderful thing about adoption is that at the end of the process there is a child.”
He continued: ‘It may take a while, but in the end there is a child. When IVF destroys the soul in every way, unless you have a child.”
When asked if she would be happy to allow her own children to meet their biological parents in the future, LI-Da said: “Of course, I think it’s very important, it’s part of your identity.”
‘There should be no secrets, there is room for everyone.’
Speaking on Katie Piper’s Extraordinary People podcast, Prue said: “I’ve always been very close to Li-Da, interestingly closer to Li-Da than I am, I think, to my son, even though I adore him and love him so much. but I don’t see it much.
‘Li-Da and I have always been very close, but yes, we are certainly closer, and she is very good at making sure that every day I use FaceTime or she FaceTimes. So that my grandson doesn’t forget who his Nana is.’
Li-Da knew little about her biological family: her parents were thought to be victims of Cambodia’s extermination camps, in which more than a million people were murdered by the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979.
Prue Leith previously admitted she was closer to her adopted daughter Li-Da than her biological son Daniel (pictured together in 2010).
Li-Da said she recommends adoption to anyone, even those who can conceive naturally.
In 2020, mother and daughter made a documentary Journey with my Daughter, about Li-Da’s traumatic start in war-torn Cambodia as they searched for her birth family (pictured).
His mother was killed in a rocket attack while his father, a soldier, went missing, orphanage staff said.
In April 1975, the Khmer Rouge, whose death camps claimed the lives of nearly two million Cambodians, marched on the capital, Phnom Penh.
Just three days before the city fell, six-month-old Li-Da was flown out of the country in a bassinet under the feet of an American helicopter pilot on one of the last flights.
Li-Da traced her biological family, along with her mother, in the 2020 Channel 4 documentary Prue Leith: Journey with My Daughter.
During the film, Prue said that she gave her daughter an upbringing that she herself described as “very English” and rarely questioned whether she could have helped Li-Da connect more with her Cambodian roots.
Viewers were impressed with Prue’s honesty in admitting that she may have failed to foster a connection between Li-Da and her cultural roots, and praised the GBBO judge for her “unconditional love.”
In April 1975, the Khmer Rouge, whose death camps claimed the lives of nearly two million Cambodians, marched on the capital, Phnom Penh.
Just three days before the city fell, six-month-old Li-Da was taken out of the country in a bassinet under the feet of an American helicopter pilot on one of the last flights.