# Prue Leith: 'I've had HRT patches on my bum for more than 40 years!'

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-shift-with-sam-baker-1305838/prue-leith-i-ve-had-hrt-patches-on-my-bum-for-more-than-40-years
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-shift-with-sam-baker-1305838/prue-leith-i-ve-had-hrt-patches-on-my-bum-for-more-than-40-years.md
Podcast: [The Shift with Sam Baker](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-shift-with-sam-baker-1305838)
Published: 2026-03-10T01:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com/
Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/AUDD3043897269.mp3?updated=1773047962
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Duration seconds: 3337

## Resource

Somehow it’s the end of our 20th season and I’m delighted to say that my guest today is a woman who has spent the last decade giving us a masterclass in ageing. One of my very own old bird role models, Prue Leith. Now 86, Prue has lived a multitude of lives. Chef, businesswoman, author, food columnist, board director, DBE, campaigner for Dignity in Dying and television host, most recently, of course, a nine year stint on Great British Bake Off, which she quit earlier this year. She opened her restaurant Leith’s in 1969, was awarded a Michelin star and turned it into an empire including a catering business and a cookery school, which won her the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the year. After she sold those businesses Prue became a successful food columnist, author and broadcaster. She has written 14 cookbooks, nine novels, a memoir, and currently has a column in the Oldie. How the hell has she done it? Well lucky us, she’s just written a new book, her 25th, Being Old and Learning To Love It and she’s here to tell us. Prue joined me from the cotswolds to talk about what she loves - and hates about being old. Reclaiming being an ‘old woman’, widowhood, luck, brain fog, why she has no time for age-related fashion rules and why she thinks it’s a crime to be bored. Plus taking HRT for 40+ years and having ‘patches on her bum’ for most of her life! CW: On a more serious note there’s also discussion of suicide, the right to die and Prue’s own end of life plans. * You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Shift bookshop on Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, including Being Old and Learning to Love it by Prue Leith as well as the book that inspired this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can t…

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