‘I think about dying every day’: Prue Leith gets candid about death and wants everyone else to do the same

The following content contains frank discussions of death and dying that some readers might find sensitive.

Prue Leith leaves no subject off the table during interviews and appearances, and has recently been very open about everything from her 13-year affair with her first husband, to intimacy later in life.

While never appearing to tire about being asked about Bake Off, the presenter answers endless questions about her departure, her relationship with Alison Hammond, and even the one scene she refused to film while making the show.

As a campaigner for Dignity in Dying, Prue is also very open about her thoughts on death, and what she'd like her own to look like. She also urges more people to engage in positive conversations about dying.

"I think about dying a lot," Prue says during an appearance on The Shift with Sam Baker podcast.

"I think about it every day in one way or another," she continues, adding, "I don't fear death, I'm not religious, I think that when I'm dead I'm dead."

"I'm a bit frightened of the process of dying," she says, candidly, which is why she campaigns for people to be granted more control over their death, to avoid fearing that it could be a difficult "process."

She believes "we're not good at facing" the fact people can be subjected to a death they wouldn't choose, because of policy and protocol in place aimed at keeping people alive as long as possible.

"You do more harm by keeping people artificially alive, when they're going to die anyway," she says.

Prue began thinking and "planning" for her own death after the deaths of her brothers and her first husband. One of her brothers, she recalls had a "ghastly" death, which sparked fears of what her own could look like.

Her first husband, Rayne Kruger, died of emphysema. In conversation with The Guardian, Prue recalls his death being "incredibly upsetting."

"He didn’t want to die because he thought he should live for my sake and the children," she says, adding, "Sometimes he would not be able to breathe and doctors would have to get him on a trolley to get to the right equipment."

"Doctors shoved me out of the way and took him to a defibrillator. The next day I went back to the hospital and he was fine. I thought, how many times will we have to go through this?"

Her other brother passed away "in his bed, surrounded by family, with his cat under his arm." The family were able to gather, watch his favourite film with him, and witness his peaceful death.

"He wasn't in any pain," Prue says, wanting the same comfortable death for herself. "He had the perfect death," she shares, adding that death is a subject "we're not very good at talking about," urging for conversations about dying to become more mainstream.

"While I am healthy at the moment, I’d very much like to have a little lethal concoction sitting in a safe waiting for the right moment. And I’d rather it was legal," she concludes.