Great British Bake Off plunged me into a depression, ex host Sandi Toksvig admits

Sandi Toksvig says she 'thought she was going out of her mind' hosting Great British Bake Off

Sandi Toksvig has opened up about her time on The Great British Bake Off, revealing that the experience was so mind-numbingly dull it plunged her into depression.

The 66 year old comedian and broadcaster, who became a part of the beloved baking series when it transitioned to Channel 4 in 2017, decided to hang up her presenting apron after three seasons in 2020. At the time, she cited the need to focus on her other projects as the reason for her departure.

However, during a candid chat on the Stirring it Up podcast, Sandi confessed that the real reason behind her exit was to protect her mental health, as she struggled with the tedium of filming: "It was the biggest pay cheque of my life... no disrespect to people who like to cook, but watching meringue dry and being told how many different kinds there are? I honestly thought I was going out of my mind."

She recounted the agony of enduring five-hour bakes, which would be condensed into mere minutes on television, saying: "I would ring (my wife) Deb and go, 'I'm going crazy, I am going crazy', because a five-hour bake, which is 20 minutes on the telly it's five hours long."

"I was just getting depressed. But it's about integrity. If you have that then you can sleep. If you have integrity and you think, 'I'm doing a good thing for other people, I'm being good to my friends, my family,' that's fine. There's no money in the world that can then take that from you."

Her partner Debbie joined her on the podcast, highlighting how Sandi's role on the show significantly raised her media profile, which brought its own set of pressures and was "very stressful". Debbie, a psychotherapist, stressed the importance of mental health over financial gain: "Mental health is way more important than how much money you earn."

She's currently undertaking an ambitious digital project dubbed Mappa Mundi, documenting women's achievements and struggles across the globe. This innovative endeavour, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, aims to challenge the gender imbalance in information available on Wikipedia.

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