Prue Leith blasted by furious GBBO 2017 fans for leaking name of winner in 'gaffe of the year'

Francesca Gillett31 October 2017

Fans of the Great British Bake Off have been left reeling after judge Prue Leith leaked the name of the winner hours before the series finale was aired because of a time zone mix-up.

Channel Four bosses desperately tried to limit the damage as fans were urged to stop spreading the programme’s spoiler after Leith accidentally posted it on Twitter while she was in Asia.

But viewers were left helpless as the now deleted tweet revealing the winner was screenshotted and reposted across the social media platform.

Fans criticised the new baking judge, who joined the series when it moved to Channel Four this year, saying she had “ruined” the final for them and awarded her “gaffe of the year”.

Ruined: Prue Leith quickly deleted the tweet
Twitter/ Prue Leith

“The Great British Balls Up,” one blogger tweeted while another internet user tweeted: “Thanks Prue Leith for ruining the GBBO Final. Why have I been watching it all these weeks?!”

Sue Jarvis added: “Thanks a bunch Prue Leith. Now ruined for so many fans.. keep off Twitter. We are all very angry.”

Others blasted social media users who were continuing to spread the spoiler, with user Corrina writing: “Prue’s now-deleted tweet has been screenshotted everywhere.”

“Manually RTing the now-deleted tweet revealing the #GBBOFinal winner is the ultimate Twitter trash move," said journalist James Ball.

Many saw the funny side and joked that former judge Mary Berry would be enjoying the furore.

One Twitter user, Daniel Gilbert, said: “Prue should be renamed Prue Leaked" while another user said the tweet "needed longer in the oven".

Others suggested the leak could be a red herring, and speculated whether the judge shared the name of the wrong winner.

"Is this some sort of Halloween trickery?" one user asked, while Maggie McShane tweeted: Is it too much to hope that #PrueGate was a clever ruse and she didn’t really tweet the winner of #GBBOFinal."

But reassuringly for the newbie judge, some fans remained defiant and supported Prue and sent her their sympathy.

Paul Alistair tweeted: “Still excited for the GBBO Final tonight… and despite her Twitter accident, I still bloody love Prue Leith!!”

The judge, 77, expressed regret after the TV blunder, saying she was in Bhutan when she made the slip-up.

"I'm in Bhutan. The time difference is massive,” she said. “I thought that they got it six hours ago. I'm in too much of a state to talk about it. I f***** up."

Leith made the blunder on Monday morning when she tweeted: "No-one told me judging a GBBO final would be so emotional. I wanted them all to win. Bravo...."

The tweet, which was later removed, came seconds after Leith announced that she would be returning to the show next year, along with Paul Hollywood, Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig.

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