Prue Leith worried she would see less of daughter if she tracked down birth mother
6 years ago
14 April 2020 - 2:00 PM

Prue Leith worried she would see less of daughter if she tracked down birth mother

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Prue Leith has admitted part of her worried she would see less of her adopted daughter if she found her birth mother.

The 80-year-old chef - who has Daniel, 45, and Li-Da, 45, with late husband Rayne Kruger - had a moment of concern when she thought her daughter had tracked down a woman in Cambodia, Hong Soth, who could have been Li-Da\'s birth mother, but she was eventually ruled out after DNA testing.

Prue told The Guardian newspaper: "I remember desperately hoping she was Li-Da\'s mother, because I knew how important it was for Li-Da to find her.

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"But part of me thought, \'Oh God, it\'s not just Hong Soth, she has a whole family. I\'ve had Li-Da for 45 years. Am I prepared for her to focus on the Cambodian side of her family, and see much less of her?\' "

\'The Great British Bake Off\' judge adopted Li-Da at the age of one before the Khmer Rouge attacked the city of Phnom Penh, killing one-quarter of Cambodia\'s population in just four years.

Li-Da first travelled to Cambodia in search of her birth parents when she was 27, but failed to find anything leading to them.

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She decided to try again for the documentary \'Prue Leith: Journey With My Daughter\' after adopting a two-year-old boy.

The filmmaker recalled: "I literally had to fill in this form with every address I\'d ever lived at and the dates I left and why. And I suddenly realised that, actually, all those details really matter to me. They\'ve always mattered. I wanted to be able to fill in the gaps of my own history for my son."

Prue has always supported her daughter\'s efforts to find her birth parents, and Li-Da is grateful her mother is understanding as she remembered a touching moment before the first time she went in search of her parents.

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She said to her mother: "You said the most amazing thing to me. Before I first went to Cambodia you said, \'I support you 100 per cent trying to find your birth parents, but just know that if you never come back, I am so privileged to have spent 27 years of your life with you.\' "

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