Ever wondered if Mary Berry still watches Bake Off? She’s just revealed the answer

Dame Mary Berry is such an icon of our time. She's had a lengthy career in cookery and television, and approaching the age of 91, is sharing her love of gardening with the world in the form of her first book that isn't about food.

While we race to get a copy of My Gardening Life and read about the natural health cure Mary has found in tending to her garden, we often think about Bake Off, the series that introduced so many new generations to her brilliance.

One question fans often have in particular, is whether Mary still watches the show after she stepped away in 2016, after the series defected from the BBC to Channel 4.

The national treasure has now given her answer: Mary Berry no longer tunes into Bake Off. But it's for quite an adorable reason.

She's often spoken about her very traditional marriage and love for her husband, and Mary doesn't watch Bake Off anymore because she doesn't want to upset her husband of nearly 60 years, Paul Hunnings.

"I don’t think it’s fair on my husband," Mary tells PA Media, adding, "We’re testing recipes all the time, thinking what’s going in the next book, talking recipes."

"It’s not fair on my husband in the evening to turn on a cooking programme, because he’s seen quite enough of it."

While she doesn't watch Bake Off anymore, Mary does have a penchant for gardening shows. "I’m an avid watcher of BBC Gardeners’ World," she shares.

Mary continues, "There’s nothing that puts me in a better mood than Monty Don welcoming me on a Friday with a huge smile, talking at a slow and steady pace of what he’s up to and what we should be doing at the weekend."

"I’ve been fortunate to have been on the programme and have seen that his dogs just follow their master, which is exactly what our dogs do."

While Mary has only just begun to share her love of gardening with the world, it's actually been a passion of hers since childhood, when she began picking flowers from her family garden to sell at the gate.

She recalls her garden becoming a "great solace," at many points in her life, particularly after the death of her son William, who died in a car crash at the age of 19.

Her current garden contains a bed of sweet williams (Dianthus barbatus) in his memory, and Mary also has a collection of other sentimental plants taken with her from previous properties.

"When we lost William, we were very much in the garden, planning, planting, and lovely friends gave us plants which I brought with me," she shares, concluding, "I still look at them and think of the happy times we had with him."