Bake Off’s Mel Giedroyc ‘wiped out financially’ after making terrible decision

After making an unwise financial choice early on in her career, Mel Giedroyc learnt a lesson that has impacted her behaviour ever since.

The comedian and presenter, whose just been announced as the host of brand new gameshow Pictionary, started out on the skit show, French and Saunders.

Alongside comedy partner Sue Perkins, she then landed her very own TV show, Light Lunch. After the early success, Mel, who was still in her early thirties, had more money than she’d ever had before. But this led to her making a financial decision for which she paid a heavy price.

Mel undertook a £500,000 mortgage to buy a property, assuming that she’d be able to continue making the same salary for the foreseeable future. However, she was unexpectedly dropped from one of her biggest earners, which caught her like a bolt from the blue.

From iconic adverts to her ‘big old financial crash’ and thinking the Great British Bake Off was going to be a flop, let’s take a look at Mel’s life in the spotlight so far…

Mel and Sue are a winning partnership

Meeting future best friend Sue Perkins at the University of Cambridge set Mel, 56, on the path to stardom. Making each other chuckle, transpired into the pair making other people bowl over from laughter at the city’s Footlights comedy club.

Sticking together, they used their partnership to get a foot in the door of showbiz. They won the Best Newcomers Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993, and then wrote and appeared in French and Saunders.

In 1996, they got their big break, landing Channel 4 Daytime comedy chatshow Light Lunch (later called Late Lunch). In the episodes, the pair interviewed celebrities, reaching the highs of Kylie Minogue and Neil Morrisey, while preparing and eating a meal.

Mel now regrets bringing it to an end after just two years. ‘This may just be a bit rose-tinted, looking back on the whole thing, but I think we actually had a really good show on our hands,’ she explained.

‘It had a cult following among students, prisoners and breastfeeding mothers. But we decided, “We’ve done this for two years; let’s do something else.” And actually we probably should have carried on a bit longer. I think it had more legs in it.’

Their first show together may be long over, but they still value their role in each other’s lives.

‘We’re each the trampoline upon which the other one bounces,’ Sue, 55, once told The Guardian. Mel called their relationship ‘blooming special’, adding: ‘When we work together, we revert to being 19 again, which is bloody annoying for anyone around us because we’ve so much shared history and comedy.’

Dropped by Kingsmill

After becoming a recognisable face with a steady stream of gigs, including starring in the BBC sitcom Blessed and co-presenting Richard Hammond’s 5 O’Clock Show on ITV, a big company wanted her – Kingsmill Bread.

Mel and Sue recorded two adverts per year for the bakery brand, which brought in regular income that she had begun to depend on. With the presumption it would continue, Mel borrowed £500,000 to purchase a large home with television director husband Ben Morris.

But then a knock from the postman changed everything… ‘I had the girls [daughters Vita and Florence] and I thought, “This is great! I can be a stay-at-home mum and do the odd advert and keep the coffers going and life is good”. Then a letter came through the door saying, “We don’t need you any more for the advert” – and that was it. We were wiped out financially.

‘There were many sleepless nights and chats around, “Oh my God, what have we done?”‘

The couple had to sell their home and move their family into a rented ‘tiny’ two-bedroom flat, as they feared being declared bankrupt. ‘It was just at the time when the housing market was going to pot, around the crash in 2007,’ she stated.

Now, Mel lives within her means and has taken an important lesson from the situation. ‘[You learn] through these awful experiences that there is more to life than the trappings of wealth,’ she shared.

Bake Off brilliance

Mel has been refreshingly honest in admitting that part of the reason she agreed to the Great British Bake Off in 2010 was to help her recover from financial issues. She had no faith in it being a success with the audiences.

‘At first, I thought: ‘Isn’t this just another cookery show?’ I thought it would go under the radar but I needed the work and it was a chance to work with Sue again,’ she shared in an interview with .

Her prediction couldn’t have been further from the truth, and the BBC series has become a cultural phenomenon. Mel and Sue set the tone early for the fun innuendo-filled vibe that has become synonymous with the baking contest.

They stayed for seven years before passing the baton on to Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig as it moved to Channel 4. She didn’t step away because it stopped being fun, but instead because ‘it’s always good to leave the party when the music’s still playing’ (via Independent).

She’s got longevity

After making Bake Off rise to the top of the TV world, Mel’s small screen presence became as reliable as a good Victoria Sponge.

Although, a few of her series have got the axe including Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker (no pun intended), she’s managed to keep her face on screen, notably with Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable. The programme having her name in the title is indicative of just how big Mel has become.

In the episodes, celebrities compete to convince Mel and her assistant Lou Sanders that they are the most unforgivable person in the room. In order to do this, they will confess to their most outrageous sins, lies, and morally bankrupt behaviour.

It largely relies on her quick wit to make it work, which Mel has made look easy in the four series so far.

TV bosses know that getting Mel involved means grabbing a few laughs, and sometimes, even endless memes. While working as a co-commentator on the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023, she was the ultimate scene-stealer.

There may have been chaos going on everywhere, but all Mel needed to do was churn butter as a nod to her Polish roots to become one of the major talking points.

In what could possibly be the biggest win of her career so far, Mel will be presenting Pictionary, based on the world’s most popular drawing game. The show will launch in December with a Christmas special and then series one will include a run of 24 episodes. 

‘Everyone is familiar with Pictionary, and I am so excited to help bring the game to life on television. It is such a pleasure to be a part of and I know people will love the show,’ Mel excitedly said.

Based on Mattel’s popular board game of quick-fire sketches and hilarious guesses, Pictionary will follow the same rules as the familiar at-home game and will see two teams battle against each other.

In the classic sketching and guessing game Mel will be joined by two celebrity team captains who will lead their teams of contestants. Their mission is to draw images to match a word or phrase from a specific category and the teammates will have to guess correctly to score.