London - Women can get ahead in business by having an affair with a married man, according to Prue Leith – who claims her own success was down to doing just that.
The celebrity cook and food school owner, who was born in South Africa, said her 13-year-long relationship with South African writer Rayne Kruger helped her to make her fortune.
She said it allowed her to feel loved – but gave her time to concentrate on her business without the demands of being a housewife.
She revealed Kruger, who she later married, would disappear home each evening which gave her time to pour all of her efforts into her work as she did not have to worry about cooking a meal each night or look after children.
The 75-year-old made the remarks as she spoke about her new book Food of Love at Henley Literary Festival and told the audience that when she did eventually settle down she was forced to slow down.
However by that point, Leith said the foundations of her business were so strong she continued to go from strength-to-strength.
Leith, who has two children, was 21 when she met Kruger who was already married to her mom’s best friend, actress Nan Munro.
She said: “I was very lucky because I didn’t actually marry until I was 34. I did have a very long affair with the man who became my husband. So I had this in the background secretly, he was wonderful at helping me, but he was invisible. And he went home at night. So I could work every hour that God gave.
“I worked really, really hard. I’m not saying that I’m proud of the fact that I had a long affair with a married man. But it did help my business. When we finally married… it didn’t half slow me down.
“But by the time I married and thought about children I already had the business under control. I had the restaurant and the catering company. I hadn’t yet opened the school but I had the bones of the business.”
She admitted that she had the best of both worlds while carrying out her affair. She said: “I wasn’t unloved and I wasn’t alone. I was just grateful that I didn’t have to go home and cook dinner every night, because he wasn’t there.”
It was only in her 2012 memoir, Relish: My Life On A Plate, that Leith revealed her relationship with Kruger began while he was married. He was 39 at the time.
She has described Kruger as a man who was “half-uncle, half-godfather” to her and said their close relationship was “practically incest.”
When Leith temporarily broke off the affair, Kruger sprang into action and dumped Munro. Six weeks later Leith and Kruger were back together. They remained happily married until Kruger died in 2002.
The cook who has a son Daniel and an adopted daughter Li-Da, said she thinks the pressure on women to have both children and a great career is “quite scary”. ‘It is impossible to give your full and undivided attention to both family and work. It’s just impossible.’
Leith began her career supplying business lunches with Leith’s Good Food, before opening Michelin starred restaurant Leith’s. She has since founded Leith’s School of Food and Wine.
She is also a judge on the BBC’s Great British Menu, which sees top chefs compete against each other.
Daily Mail