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Sandi Toksvig on quitting Bake Off: ‘I walked away from the biggest pay cheque of my life because I didn’t enjoy it’

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“It’s not for me,” she stated. “I walked away from the biggest pay cheque of my life, but that’s fine. I’d never watched it. I still haven’t watched it. I didn’t understand it. Cakes are readily available in the shops.”

Toksvig continued: “I didn’t enjoy the process. You stand at the end of a long table for hours when Prue [Leith] and Paul [Hollywood] taste everything and we literally didn’t speak or taste anything. I used to say, ‘Can we not sit down? I’m not contributing,’ but no.”

The newspaper proceeded to ask if she had kept in touch with any on-screen colleagues from Bake Off, to which Toksvig revealed that she and Prue Leith are “joined at the hip”.

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However, she appears to have drifted from the other two faces of her Bake Off iteration, saying that Paul Hollywood is “so busy” and “impossible to catch”, while Toksvig gave a simple “no” when asked about Noel Fielding.

As the final nail in the coffin, the broadcaster said she didn’t even enjoy sampling the extravagant bakes dreamt up by the show’s contestants, stating instead that her vice is cheese.

Back in January, Toksvig admitted to Radio Times magazine that she had become bored during her time on Bake Off.

She said: “I was literally standing there watching meringues dry and thinking, ‘Oh my God, my brain is atrophying.'”

The comments elicited a response from Fielding, who told The Guardian: “Sandi, as we know, is a massive brain. She went to Cambridge, she’s super-smart, she writes, she does politics, she needs to be stimulated.

“She never stays anywhere too long, except QI, which is the perfect show for her.”

The Great British Bake Off continues tomorrow, Tuesday 8th October, at 8pm on Channel 4.

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