I drowned a litter of kittens as a child, reveals Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith

GREAT British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith has told how she drowned a ­litter of kittens as a child.

The Channel 4 star, 82, confessed the shocking act was “a traumatic experience”.

South Africa-raised Prue, who has a cat called Magnificat, said: “My mother and I, then 11, had just drowned some kittens… and for weeks I imagined those poor dead creatures.

“Too many kittens was a frequent occurrence and there had come a day when my mother, unable to find homes for yet another litter, decided to drown the latest batch.

“My protests were met with a firm, ‘Darling, it has to be done. They are only a few hours old. They will hardly know it’s happening’.”

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Her mum lowered the bag of kittens into water and said: “We just have to hold them under and they will go to sleep.”

But the kittens “fought like the devil for life”.

Telling the story in her memoir, I’ll Try Anything Once, Prue said her mum then changed her mind.

But Prue said, “We can’t stop now”, and revealed:  “I held the bag under water until the last kitten had stopped mewing.”