Great British Bake Off's Diana Beard says her "conscience is clear" following 'bingate' row
Diana Beard says she would like to move on from the incident with Iain, and also reveals details of the injury that forced her to withdraw from The Great British Bake Off
The Great British Bake Off's Diana Beard says that her "conscience is clear" despite the online criticism she received following the so-called 'bingate' row.
Diana, in her first television interview since leaving Bake Off, told The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice on Friday night that she would like to put the issue to bed, after she was accused on social media of "sabotaging" fellow baker Iain Watters's Baked Alaska.
She admitted that she did take Iain's dessert out of the fridge, but doesn't know what happened after that.
"From the other side of the tent, Iain came over and picked it up," she explained. "After that it went to his side of the tent. That's all I know, because you're so busy doing your own thing. I didn't even see him throw his in the bin."
When asked what she thought of Iain's actions, she said, "Silly boy, really! I think us girls would have said, 'Well, OK, we've got to make something of it,' and put the meringue on the top and presented it, which I think would have been OK, would have been good."
Diana, visibly nervous while she talked about the issue on television for the first time, said she now wanted to put the incident behind her: "I think it's been well documented," she told presenter Jo Brand. "My conscience is clear. I'd like to put it to bed really if that's possible."
Diana also revealed further details about the 'freak accident' that forced her to withdraw from the baking competition the following week: "We went out for supper the night before programme five, and [I] absolutely blacked out, bashed my head, and spent a night in A&E," she said.
Her GP had already told the media that she had lost all sense of taste and smell, and Diana confirmed that that was still the case. "Still no taste and smell," she said. "Really I could now have sawdust sandwiches; I'd be really quite cheap to keep."
She said that she had seen a neurosurgeon about the injury, but has only been told, "It may come back, it may not."
However, she did say she was grateful for the comments of her fellow baker, 17-year-old Martha, who had previously said on The Great British Bake Off that Diana had been like a grandmother to her.
"When you think you've got a nearly 70 year old and a 17 year old brought together with a common baking theme, that seems to me pretty good," she said.
Diana agreed that she wished the incident with Iain hadn't happened, but that every baker in the competition had to deal with the same pressure.
She told the programme: "It was the same for everyone, of course. All the showstoppers are stressful, they test you, and that's the way it should be."
Diana also said that at least she never had to go through being told to leave the Bake Off tent: "I have something in common with the five winners, I've never been voted off! So that's something."
