Bake Off's Sue Perkins has something very profound to say about milestone birthdays
We all love and miss Sue Perkins from The Great British Bake Off, but fear not, she is still making media appearances and offering her wit as well as wisdom.
Last week, Sue appeared onthe Homo Sapiens podcast which is a show run by Alan Cumming and Christopher Sweeney for LGBTQ+ people. Sue spoke about her midlife crisis and the immense pressure and anxiety she felt about turning 50.
"Six months before [turning 50] I was almost entirely unbearable. I had a classic, lowest grade, entry-level midlife crisis. I wanted to be somebody who didn’t behave the way everybody else behaved, I wanted to run contrary to the narrative. But now, I just got sucked straight into that."
MORE:Bake Off's Sandi Toksvig offers adults life-changing opportunity in new TV show
She believes we are culturally hardwired to reflect on "the big ones." Sue said the "subconscious cultural pressures to examine birthdays with noughts at the end. We’re just sheep […] we just follow. No matter how counter-cultural and exciting I wish to be…
She also spoke on another important topic and one which is understandably close to her heart. Sheshared the recent experience of confronting somebody over verbal homophobic abuse while walking her dog on Hampstead Heath.
She says she "sort of went right up to him and went, ‘What did you say?’ And he sort of postured a bit almost as if he was going to hit me, almost like an intimation of something physical.”
MORE:Great British Bake Off crew go to extraordinary lengths to protect Prue Leith from coronavirus
Sign up for the woman&home newsletter
Sign up to our free daily email for the latest royal and entertainment news, interesting opinion, expert advice on styling and beauty trends, and no-nonsense guides to the health and wellness questions you want answered.
It was the shock of it for her which was most scary and stated that it had been many years since she experienced something similar. “When I was growing up, it was just mutterings. It was all quiet and a cultural thing of that’s just not quite right", she said, "you know when something bad happens and on the bus, on the way home you think of all the brilliant things you should have said – in that moment I had that very profoundly."
Rachel is a freelance contributor to woman&home, covering news as well as books, lifestyle and travel. Her byline has also appeared in The Independent, The Financial Times, ELLE Magazine, VICE, Glamour Magazine and others. She loves nothing more than talking with people to share their stories. When she is not writing you will definitely find her nose in a book or magazine, or perhaps training for the next half marathon, practicing yoga or eating in London's best restaurants.
-
The evolution of the Met Gala in pictures, from its origins to fun facts and the most iconic moments
The Met Gala has become the 'superbowl of fashion' - but how did it start and when did Anna Wintour make it fashion's big night out?
By Jack Slater Published
-
From Madonna to Beyoncé, we uncover the most iconic songs that are actually remakes
Sometimes a cover song becomes so iconic people don't even realise it is a cover to begin with - and these examples are proof
By Jack Slater Published