Mary Berry From 'The Great British Bake Off' Is The TV Grandma Your Life's Been Missing
If you're not already obsessed, just you wait.
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Let's start with the obvious: 83-year-old Mary Berry is a damn national treasure, even if the U.K. gets to claim her as theirs. She came into our lives as a judge on the delightful cooking competition show The Great British Bake Off, but she had a long and full life prior to the show. Here's a run-down of her greatest hits.
In the last decade, she’s been a judge on four TV shows.
Most famously, The Great British Bake Off, for which Berry won Best TV Judge at England's 2017 National Television Awards. She's also worked on The Junior Bake Off, Comic Relief Bake Off, and Sports Relief Bake Off.
She's published more than 20 cookbooks.
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There's a Mary Berry cookbook for just about every occasion: Sunday lunches, Christmas, simple cakes, fast cakes, and more. She also wrote an autobiography called Recipe for Life.
She’s a trained chef.
It should come as no surprise that Mary Berry knows her stuff. She attended Bath College of Domestic Science, where she studied things like cooking and cleaning, then went to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
She's been on TV since the 1970s.
While most Americans didn't know Mary Berry until well into the 2000s, the chef got her start on television decades earlier, when she starred on a show called Afternoon Plus with Judith Chalmers.
She's an entrepreneur.
In the '90s, Mary started teaching home cooking lessons called Aga Workshops. Since then, she's taught more than 12,000 people how to cook ... plus the thousands more who've watched her shows.
She used to work in media.
Her extensive publishing career makes sense — before getting into television, Mary was the food editor of a magazine called Housewife (sigh, it was the '60s). After that, she held the same title at Ideal Home Magazine.
She's definitely the nice judge.
Even when giving criticism, Mary sounds like a sweet angel. Part of the reason people love the show so much is how kind the competitors and judges are — you won't see any Gordon Ramsay-level blow-outs here. But she's no wet blanket ... Mary's got some hilarious one liners, starting with soggy bottoms.
She likes her booze.
Mary Berry is all about using booze in recipes, and according to Paul Hollywood, her two drinks of choice are gin and tonics and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. When she was 71, she famously went clubbing at a popular club in Ibiza, Spain, as one does post-retirement.
She and her husband have been together forever.
Though it took three proposals to get there (her husband-to-be was drunk the first time he proposed), Mary and Paul Hunnings have been happily married for 51 years. Last year, Mary told the Daily Mail she "can't bear the thought of being a widow." Her husband was involved in the food world, too. Though he's now retired, Paul used to work for a wine and sherry business called Harvey's of Bristol.
Their family suffered a major tragedy.
In 1989, two of Mary's three children were involved in a car accident. Her son, 19-year-old William, was killed, while her daughter Annabel survived. (Mary has another son, Thomas.) "The worst thing that can happen is when someone says ‘oh, you’ll get over it'," Mary told Mirror UK of her son's passing. "Of course, you never get over it. You have the most wonderful memories and you live with it." Berry is now a patron of Child Bereavement UK, helping other families cope with grief.
She's not big on social media.
The one exception: Facebook. Per her website, "I am not very good on social media but we do have a Facebook page which gives you latest news and stories."
Even SNL knows her name.
On season 43 of Saturday Night Live, Mary and The Great British Bake Off cast got the ultimate compliment with an SNL skit. Mary's character was tactful as ever, obviously, even when faced with some rowdy competitors.
She's a loyal rugby fan.
At the first match of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Mary cheered on England from the stands. Her husband used to play the British sport, and the two of them enjoy catching local games when they can.
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