{"id":438510,"date":"2026-02-21T20:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T20:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/438510\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T20:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T20:38:08","slug":"inheritance-tax-is-wicked-im-dishing-out-all-my-money-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/438510\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Inheritance tax is wicked \u2013 I\u2019m dishing out all my money now\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meanwhile, salaries for Dame Prue\u2019s staff \u2013 including her PA, housekeeper, cleaner and a couple of gardeners \u2013 are her biggest outgoing, she reveals. And she\u2019s also keen on supporting those dear to her in any way she can. \u201cI have been dishing out some money to my kids and my goddaughter while I\u2019m alive,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause it\u2019s nice to see them spend it, and [to] help with school fees or buying a house. My plan is to keep doing that so that there won\u2019t be any when I die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dame Prue\u2019s frankness in talking about her wealth is refreshing, and she devotes several pages in her new book to the importance of planning for one\u2019s financial legacy. She says she is getting her affairs in order so that she doesn\u2019t leave any nasty surprises behind her when she goes \u2013 \u201cThough I need to plan carefully, as my mother lived to 97, so I\u2019ll probably pass 100.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the topic of inheritance tax<\/a>, Dame Prue labels it \u201cwicked\u201d. \u201cLike most people who have made money, I think, \u2018For God\u2019s sake, I have already paid tax on that money I earned\u2019 \u2013 45 per cent tax, which is quite a lot. So I really don\u2019t want to be taxed another 40 per cent again when I die,\u201d she says. \u201cI do understand the government has to get their money from somewhere, and I think it\u2019s fair that rich people should pay more. But paying tax twice sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although this subject briefly wipes the smile from Dame Prue\u2019s face, she positively beams when husband Playfair pops into the bedroom to say hello and show me the present he has bought for her recent birthday: a Maine coon cat that is currently tiny with cute fluffy ears but which will grow to weigh about 5kg and reach 36cm in length. \u201cHer name is Sophie, which is short for Sophisticat,\u201d says Dame Prue. \u201cShe\u2019s the prettiest thing ever. But she\u2019s an absolute escape artist \u2013 you open the door a crack and she\u2019s through it like a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

She gives Playfair instructions to put Sophie in her office during The Telegraph\u2019s photo shoot, punctuating the handful of sentences with multiple \u201cdarlings\u201d. From watching this short interaction between the couple, it\u2019s clear they are utterly besotted with each other.<\/p>\n

Dame Prue met Playfair when she was 70 and he was 64 \u2013 introduced by mutual friends at a dinner party \u2013 having lost her first husband, Kruger, who was 20 years her senior, in 2002. She hated her eight years alone \u2013 \u201cWidowhood sucks\u201d \u2013 and couldn\u2019t believe her good fortune in falling in love again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meanwhile, salaries for Dame Prue\u2019s staff \u2013 including her PA, housekeeper, cleaner and a couple of gardeners \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[43822,70814,457,84,5343,4176,36044,655,159741,74387,159742,31084,4174,4175,40195,5438,3133,58919,56,54,55,157732],"class_list":{"0":"post-438510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-assisted-dying","9":"tag-autobiographies","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-culture","13":"tag-finance","14":"tag-great-british-bake-off","15":"tag-lifestyle","16":"tag-lifestyle-interview","17":"tag-nigella-lawson","18":"tag-other-lifestyle","19":"tag-paul-hollywood","20":"tag-personal-finance","21":"tag-personalfinance","22":"tag-prue-leith","23":"tag-standard","24":"tag-television","25":"tag-top-story","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-united-kingdom","28":"tag-unitedkingdom","29":"tag-us-content"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}