The Great British Bake Off’s Season 12 begins on Netflix on Friday. I enjoy GBBO when I need something chill, kind and gentle. I appreciate the fact that it’s a baking competition and people are legitimately competing, but it’s not over-the-top bulls–t like so many American cooking competitions. It’s mostly just sweet British bakers stressing about their own cakes and trying to support one another. Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith are currently the two host/judges/tasters. Paul Hollywood seems very… Hollywood. He has a permanent tan, a gruff exterior and piercing blue eyes. But are those blue eyes for real??
Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith are returning for another eagerly awaited season of “The Great British Bake Off,” and even after all these years, people only seem to want to ask Leith about Hollywood’s piercingly blue peepers.
“We want to give a quite serious talk to a bunch of people about women’s issues or business or cooking, and the first question is always, ‘Are Paul Hollywood’s eyes real?’” Leith, 81, exclusively told Page Six with a laugh. “I’m tempted to say, ‘Sometimes he puts in his blue lenses, sometimes he puts in his brown ones.’”
For the record, Hollywood’s eyes are real and courtesy of his grandfather.
The new 12th season of the Netflix hit was filmed under lockdown (as was its predecessor), which Hollywood, 55, admitted was not an easy feat. However, he is glad producers were still able to pull it off because the show “puts a smile on people’s faces and gets them into the kitchen and baking” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There is a comforting element to ‘Bake Off,’ and I think if you’re sitting there in your dressing gown and your slippers and watching ‘Bake Off,’ I think it’s quite a cozy thing to watch,” he added.
However, gorging on cakes for weeks at a time seems to have left Leith with a somewhat complicated relationship with desserts. “I’m quite greedy, and I do like it,” she confessed before adding, “But yes, obviously eating a lot of very sweet things is tiring, [though] it doesn’t mean I don’t gobble them down with a great deal of pleasure, [but] I do feel guilty afterward. I have a slightly less sweet tooth than Paul,” she continued. “Paul loves very sweet things, but I think we both find it a relief when we’re going to judge something which is savory.”
No, really: does Paul Hollywood wear colored contacts? I’m haunted by that question. I think he does? I’ve met people with piercing blue eyes before but Paul’s eyes are just too deep, too bright, too wolf-like. As for getting tired of eating sweet things… that would be me. I love sweet things too, but I would get so sick of cakes and pies and strudels and baked goods after about three episodes.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
I have eyes like that. My vote is they’re real.
Lucky you. I wish I had those beautiful eyes.
The deep tan will also make for more contrast with the blue.
As does the silver hair.
Add that he often wears blue tops. My blue eyes change depending on the shirt colour, and wearing blue as he does makes them really pop.
His eyes are stunning, and yes, the tan/hair totally emphasize that, as well as the black eyelashes (when I would get a tan, back in my pre-historic youth days, my eyes, esp. with black mascara, looked like crystals against my skin!).
My eyes are bluish green “at rest”…if I get mad, they go deeper blue (if I’m wearing blue tones) and deep emerald (if I wearing clothes with a yellow undertone). And if my eyes get red from allergies or crying, they go this gorgeous bottle green, almost crystal-like; I never want to use drops when they get like that because I *love* that color lol.
I do tend to wear eye makeup/liner (pre-pandemic when I actually wore it all the time) that emphasize the green hue.
My brother’s eyes are that color and it’s striking.
You can fake the blue, but the limbal ring around the edge is a lot harder to duplicate. You can search and get contacts now with the limbal ring but 5 years ago I’m not so sure.
And what about when the moon is full? 🤪
I don’t know that he does, or if he does he’s very committed to it.
There’s a former NHL goalie (Martin Biron) who has the most amazing icy grey-blue eyes, and I’m pretty sure he never wore contacts. Heck, one of my closest friends has eyes that are almost the same color as his and she’s never worn contacts either.
I love Bake off! I miss Sandi though. Sandi and Noel are my favourite combination, I even liked them better than Mel and Sue. Matt s nice too but him and Noel are too similar. Mary and Prue I find equally nice.
I love Noel. I’ve been rewatching The IT Crowd, with Noel as “Richmond who dwells behind the red door.” Sandi and Noel were my favorite combo, too.
I miss Sandi so much! I’ve been re-watching all the episodes (it’s totally my comfort watch) and she is so kind and maternal with the bakers. Noel is quirky and funny and she balanced him out so well. Matt is awful. They need someone new (or bring back Mel and Sue!)
I had actually forgotten about Sandi until these comments! I really liked her and Noel together. I am not a fan of Matt.
I really miss Sandi. I’m not a fan of Matt at all. I’m disappointed he’s back actually.
I love, love, LOVE GBBS and am currently on my third time through all of the episodes on Netflix because it is so nice and soothing and lovely. I also love to bake and get some good ideas from watching.
I vote that Paul’s eyes are really that color, Prue just edges out Mary (she has a sophistication and modern sensibility that I appreciate whereas Mary was more a posh home baker who is a little old-fashioned). Matt is okay, sort of meh but he’s trying. I agree that he and Noel are sometimes too much alike.
Sandi and Noel are my all-time favorite host pairing; Sandi is lovely and caring and could really calm people down when they needed it, but she also has a cracking wit. She and Noel complemented each other perfectly. Mel and Sue are good too, but Sandi and Noel are THE BEST imo.
I like Prue more than Mary for the simple reason that she spends less time talking with her mouth full. Mary would take HUGE bites and then talk through them. Cancelled!
my friends kids father is from Scotland and they all have those gorgeous bright electric blue eyes.
His eyes remind me of actress Meg Foster’s eyes.
I think they’re real, he has that deep tan which makes them pop more, especially with his hair – the silver hair, tan skin, and then the bright blue eyes.
My 6 year old calls him his hero, LOL. As in, he made me watch an episode of British Baking last night bc he missed Paul. I do have his Bread cookbook and I really like it, I thought it would be a little too complicated for me but he actually breaks the recipes down really well.
I just love GBBO in general, I think its comforting and feel-good and I like that it’s such a gentle competition. Like yes someone gets sent home every week but its not like Survivor or something.
They’re real, colored contacts are very obvious. The better question: is Paul human?
Paul is a darling and I think his eye color is natural but I want to be Prue Leith when I grow up.
I’ve seen eyes that color. My husband’s sister kind of has them. One of my husband’s work friends brought his kids to a picnic and his oldest girl had eyes the color of a gas flame on a stove…..like truly electric blue.
I think they’re real. I know a few people with ice blue eyes like that.
There was a guy in my high school with eyes that color. Really shockingly kind of cold blue, and they weren’t contacts. It’s very rare, but people do have them. White hair tends to make those eyes pop, though. My mom’s blue-green eyes stand out more now that she’s gone grey.
I think they are real. His tan makes them look even brighter and bluer but I think they are real.
My first love was a boy whose last name was Fuqua. Yes, he was of French descent with black hair and eyes like these. Unfortunately, he was Mormon but that’s another story. 😉
His eyes were like the blue eyes you see in Husky dogs and I have to say, you’ll probably never get a warm look from them.
My family and I were in an amusement park several years ago and a boy of about 8 was kind of wandering around alone and the first thing I thought was, “Why is this little boy alone?” and the second thing I thought was, “He has Siamese cat, sapphire blue eyes.” I’d never seen eyes like that before and I haven’t seen them since and the fact that he was very dark skinned, really made them pop.
My son’s eyes are turquoise. The girls have grey eyes. Genetics are a crap shoot.
I love the show, I find it very calming – but I can only watch so much before I’m back to more drama or comedy lol. It’s best (for me) during the holiday season. No clue if those eyes are real or not, but I do know a few people with eyes like that – I’ve always assumed they’re real. *shrug*
Sometimes all the challenges blend together and it feels like they’re all the same. I binged the show during the pandemic and by the end I was like, is it a cake? is it a pie? doesnt matter! its the same!
When I watch one episode at a time on netflix i think I enjoy it a lot more overall.
I also think its one of the few shows that Netflix releases like this, one at a time, which makes sense bc they aren’t going to release the whole season at once before it airs in the UK. (I find myself very intrigued by streaming agreements sometimes lol.)
I think they’re real. I’m sure the bright lights of the show make them pop more. In person they may look normal.
I have eyes like that, but mine change depending on what I’m wearing. Also, with lights in my eyes, they’re more piercing blue (and he has lights in his eyes from the filming set-up)
He looks like a low maintenance type of guy. And the shade of blue changes depending on what color shirt he’s wearing, so I would say they’re real. I actually knew a girl at summer camp whose eyes were violet. We were about 11 and it was long before colored contacts even existed, but it was still hard to believe her eyes were that color. They were gorgeous.
I think his eyes are real. My real question is, how is Prue Leith 81?? I genuinely thought she was in her 60s!
Gosh I miss this show and I’m so excited it’s back because I was just thinking about when the next season was coming out.
I knew a girl in high school who had eyes like this. They were almost white in the center they were so light and she had dark hair so they really stood out.
I vote real. It’s the tan and the hair, and also that he knows he has a striking feature and dresses to emphasize it.
I’ve known a few peeps with eyes like this guy’s. Gorgeous for sure but my brother has the green eyed equivalent and it’s even more amazing.
I have 5 brothers and sisters, and we all have different shades of blue eyes. Two have eyes like his, and the white hair and tan make them stand out more. I vote for real. But it also wouldn’t surprise me if he wears contacts to enhance the blue. My one sister with grey/blue eyes wears colored contacts so she looks like Cujo! She loves the attention they bring her.
Love this show. The new season starts on netflix today…..can’t wait to watch.
Had a friend years ago with intense blue eyes but she also wear contacts lenses (prescription) with a light blue tint which make her eyes more turquoise.
He looks like Peter Gabriel, who also has piercingly blue eyes. Even his look more or less intense depending on the lighting, what he’s wearing, camera/photo/video quality, and whether or not he was wearing makeup.
I love GBBO. Once you watch it, you’ll never want to go back to watching an American challenge.
My son has eyes like that. He is also very, very fair & has platinum blonde hair. They look bluer in certain lights & when he wears blue/dark colors
Gorgeous eyes!
FWIW, growing up in Nebraska with its particular ethnic stew, this isn’t an entirely uncommon eye color there.
I was asked that my entire life. Kind of an annoyance once colored lenses hit mainstream. Growing up in the Valley, Hispanics were always touching my eyes to bless them. It’s one of the first things I remember from when I was a toddler. Now that I’m middle aged and wearing glasses, guess what, same color lol.
He has had those blue eyes forever. They are real.
My son’s eyes are that blue – I thought they would deepen after birth but here we are 1 yr later and whenever we are in public and he looks at someone, they walk up and engage with him. They can be kind of cold-looking sometimes, but that goofy baby grin compensates. He got my southern Mediterranean genes for everything but the eyes, so they probably do pop in a way they wouldn’t on people with lighter skin tone.
They look real. I’ve seen people in real life with striking blue or green eyes, so I’m surprised his eyes would strike people as unusual. I mean, I guess they sort of are compared to brown eyes, but you do come across people with eyes like that.
They look legit to me. My dad has eyes like that with really dark skin. It’s a beautiful combo.
I dont understand why you dont want to beleieve him
My mum in law has eyes exactly like his. I’d say they’re real.
Why would those be colored contacts? They’re obviously real.