Mary Berry’s daughter recalls surprising ‘wild’ childhood including being sent to ‘a school for rebels’

Dame Mary Berry is known for her cool, calm and collected approach to cooking and presenting. Fans are also familiar with her traditional approach to marriage and the loving way she speaks about her children.

However, like a lot of busy young mothers, Mary was occasionally left struggling to control her three children during their school years. But you might be shocked to hear about the extent to which they rebelled, with Mary's daughter revealing, "We were terrible as children."

Mary and her husband Paul Hunnings, are parents to Thomas, Annabel, and the late William, who sadly died in a car crash in 1989 at the age of 19. Annabel, now in her 50s, has shared insight into the "wild" childhood she had, including frequent suspensions and being "sent to a school for rebels."

"Once, my brothers and I all got rusticated [sent home from school] at the same time for different offences," Annabel tells The Times.

She adds, "Mum didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know how to control us. We were all very wild."

This rebellious streak eventually led to Annabel being sent to a school in Montana, to "live in log cabins" in "the middle of nowhere" doing survival courses in the Arizona desert as part of her education.

"It was a school for rebels," she says, adding, "You don’t have a toothbrush, soap, anything. You walk from sunrise to sunset. You’re five days on your own."

Days would involve being given a bag of rice, lentils and flour and some water, and making a fire to cook with. "Otherwise you don’t eat," Annabel recalls.

Despite attending a school for the rebellious, Annabel still refused "to do any homework" and didn't take her GCSEs.

With the Montana school now closed, Annabel acknowledges a similar school "wouldn't be allowed now."

Returning to Britain with no qualifications, both Annabel and her mother are great examples of forging your own path and finding out how to be "gifted in other ways" that aren't exam results.

Mary also left school with one O-level in domestic science. Annabel was inspired by seeing her mother's work ethic and the way she wasn't held back through her own lack of qualifications.

"I grew up knowing that Mum worked all the time; you just got used to it," she says, adding that she herself had "had no choice other than to be an entrepreneur" like Mary, working just as she had witnessed Mary do when building a career.

Also gaining a Cordon Bleu certificate like Mary, Annabel has built a successful salad dressing business with her mum, and released cook books of her own.

Her current focus is helping women feel nourished throughout menopause. Last year, she and Mariella Frostrup released the book, Menolicious: Eat Your Way to a Better Menopause.

Now planning a follow up, Annabel says, "I wanted a subject that didn’t make me Mary Berry’s daughter. So when I realised that there wasn’t a cookbook for menopause, Menolicious was born - that felt to me like I’m in my own lane."