‘Have an affair to get on in life’
WOMEN can get ahead in business by having an affair with a married man, according to Prue Leith – who claims her own success was down to doing just that.
The celebrity cook and food school owner said her 13-yearlong relationship with South African writer Rayne Kruger helped her to make her fortune.
She said it allowed her to feel loved – but gave her time to concentrate on her business without the demands of being a housewife. She revealed Kruger, who she later married, would disappear from home each evening, which gave her time to pour all of her efforts into her work as she did not have to worry about cooking a meal each night or look after children.
The 75-year-old made the remarks as she spoke about her new book Food Of Love at Henley Literary Festival, supported by the Mail, and told the audience that when she did eventually settle down she was forced to slow down. However by that point, Ms Leith said the foundations of her business were so strong she continued to go from strength-to-strength.
Ms Leith was 21 when she met Kruger who was already married to her mother’s best friend, actress Nan Munro.
She said: ‘I was very lucky because I didn’t actually marry until I was 34. I did have a very long affair with the man who became my husband. So I had this in the background secretly, he was wonderful at helping me, but he was invisible. And he went home at night. So I could work every hour that God gave.
‘I worked really, really hard. I’m not saying that I’m proud of the fact that I had a long affair with a married man. But it did help my business.’
It was only in her 2012 memoirs, Relish: My Life On A Plate, that Miss Leith revealed her relationship with Kruger began while he was married.
The cook who has a son Daniel and an adopted daughter Li-Da, said she thinks the pressure on women to have both children and a great career is ‘quite scary’. ‘It is impossible to give your full and undivided attention to both family and work.
‘It’s just impossible.’