The popular U.K. TV show The Great British Bake Off was hit by fresh turmoil Thursday after judge Mary Berry announced that she will be leaving the show when it moves to Channel 4 from the BBC.
Berry’s announcement is the latest in a series of shocks for the show’s legion of fans, after news emerged last week that the BBC would no longer be screening the cookery competition following “unaffordable” financial demands from the show’s production company. According to the Guardian, none of the show’s stars, including Berry, fellow judge Paul Hollywood and co-hosts Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc, were consulted about the move.
Perkins and Giedroyc released a statement on Sept. 13. stating that they would not be “going with the dough” and would no longer appear on the show. In a statement Thursday, much-loved British baking icon Berry said, “My decision to stay with the BBC is out of loyalty to them, as they have nurtured me, and the show, that was a unique and brilliant format from day one.” She added that she wished the program, its “crew and future bakers” well. “I am so very sad not to be a part of it,” she said. “Farewell to soggy bottoms.”
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Hollywood said he was “delighted” to be staying on the show. “It’s been a huge part of my life in the past few years and I just couldn’t turn my back on all that,” he said in an initial statement.
The BBC first aired The Great British Bake Off in 2010 and is currently airing its seventh season in the U.K.
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