'MY HUSBAND USUALLY FALLS ASLEEP WHEN HE WATCHES MY SHOWS!'

AS BAKING ICON DAME MARY BERRY RETURNS TO OUR SCREENS WITH A NEW COOKERY SERIES, SHE OPENS UP ABOUT HEALTH, MARRIAGE AND REFUSING TO SLOW DOWN

- KIRSTY NUTKINS

With more than 70 cookbooks to her name and countless television shows – including a six-year stint as a judge on The Great British Bake Off – Dame Mary Berry has certainly achieved a lot in her career.

And at 87, having spent more than five decades doing what she loves, she still shows no signs of slowing down, quipping, “There’s plenty of time to rest in heaven.”

But while Mary is a national treasure, brilliant cook and an all-round icon, when she’s at home she tells us she’s simply a wife, mother and gran, and that life is pretty run-of-the-mill.

Nobody treats her like a celebrity – in fact, her husband Paul usually nods off when her shows come on.

“My family do watch my series but my husband usually falls asleep during them. Interestingly, he doesn’t when it’s rugby or cricket,” she says, drily.

“But I do have tremendous support from Paul. I’ll say, ‘I’ve got another series’ and he’ll say, ‘You enjoy what you do, so off you go and I’ll be here when you get back.’

“When I’m away, I leave things for him to eat, though, because he’s not a cook and he’ll end up just opening the cornflake packet. When I come back, he’ll say ‘I’ve missed you’, which of course is very comforting, and he has a nice glass of chilled wine ready.”

The couple have been married for 56 years and share children Thomas and Annabel. Tragically, their middle child, son William, died in a car crash in 1989, aged 19. Annabel now has three children and Thomas has two. And three years ago, Mary and Paul moved from Buckinghamshire to Henley to be closer to their brood.