In the most shocking controversy ever to hit Bake Off, 69-year-old contestant Diana Beard has quit the show following a did-she-or-didn’t-she Baked Alaska claim.
Bake Off contestant Diana Beard decided to leave after last night’s Bake Off episode (Wednesday August 27), during which she was made to look like the ‘baddie’ who left fellow contestant Iain Watter’s Baked Alaska out of the freezer.
It subsequently melted, and an angry Iain chucked the whole thing in the bin – he was later eliminated from the show.
Diana the scapegoat?
Today the BBC announced that shortly after the controversial episode (in which viewers could hear Diana say, “he’s got his own freezer, hasn’t he?”), Diana quit the show due to “illness”. The series, the fourth in total, was filmed this spring.
"The night before episode five, Diana made a decision not to come back. This is not connected in any way to what happened in episode four," a BBC spokesman said.
Diana denied accusations of sabotage today (Thursday August 28) and said that she’d been “stitched up” by the programme makers, following a wave of cyber abuse for her supposed actions.
A Perkins viewpoint
But it’s not even clear whether Diana was at fault. Indeed, while the show was airing, presenter Sue Perkins tweeted:
“Iain's Alaska was out of the freezer for 40 secs. That's it. No sabotage. 40 secs of normal temp would NOT be enough to reduce it to liquid.”
Iain's say
But speaking to The Guardian, Iain said that he did not believe claims that it had been left out for under a minute, but rather, far longer. He did, however, condemn those people who thought it appropriate to cyber bully Diana for what happened.
"I was outraged [about my Baked Alaska],” Iain told The Guardian. “But I was more frustrated because I had been so focused the last hour and I had all the components made and I was frustrated that it had been taken out. It would not have been melted and ruined if it hadn't been removed from the freezer."
What do you think happened to Iain’s Baked Alaska? And do you feel sorry for Diana? Share your thought in the comments box below.
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