Great British Bake Off star Dame Prue Leith has opened up about the traumatic incident where she drowned a litter of kittens when she was a young child.
The Channel 4 judge, 82, has admitted that the ordeal was a 'traumatic incident' with her going on to imagine the drowned aqnimals in the weeks that followed.
Prue opened up about how when she was just 11 years old, she and her mother drowned a litter of kittens.
The Bake Off judge said: "Too many kittens was a frequent occurrence and there had come a day when my mother, unable to find homes for yet another litter, decided to drown the latest batch.
"My protests were met with a firm, ‘Darling, it has to be done. They are only a few hours old. They will hardly know it’s happening’."
Prue said that her mum told her if they held the kittens under water that they would go to sleep but that the kittens "fought like the devil for life".
In her memoir, I'll Try Anything Once, Prue confessed that her mother changed her mind once the kittens were already under water.
The young Prue then told her that they couldn't stop now and held the bag of kittens under water until the last one had stopped mewing.
Prue recently made more light-hearted headlines when she spoke to the Mirror about her Bake Off co-stars sense of 'childish' humour.
The baking show gives plenty of room for naughty innuendos whether it's a tart with a soggy bottom, something tasty on the side or dishes rising.
The naughty sense of humour often has Matt Lucas, Noel Fielding and fellow judge Paul Hollywood in peals of laughter. Prue has said that while she thinks the trio's sense of humour is childish, she likes them.
She said: "I don't get the joke. Paul and Matt go into gales of laughter, they are so childish. You only have to mention 'sausage' and they laugh. That is their idea of humour."
The Great British Bake Off continues next Tuesday (October 4) on Channel 4 from 8pm. You can catch up on previous episodes of the series through the streaming service All4.
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