Paul Hollywood Gets Real About Great British Bake Off Fame: 'It's Horrendous'

Paul Hollywood has made no secret of the downsides of fame in recent times, admitting in a new interview he finds his celebrity status “horrendous”.

In a new interview with Radio Times, the long-serving Great British Bake Off judge was asked whether he’d found being famous a positive experience.

“No, it’s horrendous,” he said. “I’ve always fought against the word ‘celebrity’, anyway. Right up to the age of 40, there was no way I thought I was ever going to be on telly.

“This came out of nowhere, and you have to adapt to it. There’s no school to go to learn how to deal with the press, or your day-to-day life, and how to block it off without going crazy and getting upset. You can’t.”

Paul added: “You just have to grow a very thick skin. Now I’ve got a skin like a crocodile.”

Last week, the baker said it would not be an easy decision were he to be offered his role on Bake Off knowing about the downsides that would come along with it.

“I find that really difficult because I’m quite a private person anyway. So would I have done it… I would think very, very carefully. I would be very reticent,” he said.

Paul also said he’d been “damaged” by the backlash that followed his decision to stay with Bake Off when it moved to Channel 4.

He explained: “I have grown quite a thick skin now and I sort of brush it off and go, ‘whatever, it is fine’ but it did affect me, yeah for sure, and it probably has damaged me to a point.”

Paul has previously claimed he’d become a “hermit” as a result of his Bake Off fame.