NOEL FIELDING has said he has discovered a “new level of tiredness” as he spoke about becoming a father for the first time.
The comedian and Great British Bake Off presenter was reported to have welcomed his first child, a daughter, earlier this year with partner Lliana Bird.
Speaking of fatherhood, Fielding told The Jonathan Ross Show: “I don’t know how that happened, look at my pointy visage.
“She is very beautiful and she blows my mind about a hundred times a day.
“It’s a new level of tiredness that I’ve never experienced. I’ve done a lot of all-nighters in my life. In a way I’ve been in training for this moment all my life.”
Fielding and Radio X presenter and podcaster Bird are thought to have been together for around eight years, but keep their relationship under the radar.
Fielding, who has hosted Bake Off alongside Sandi Toksvig since the programme moved to Channel 4 from BBC One last year, also admitted he cries when he watches certain episodes, despite having been there for filming.
He said the amateur bakers “are sort of like our children” while in the tent, and that losing one each week hits him hard.
“It is genuinely like losing someone from your family, it’s awful,” he said.
“You don’t think you will (get emotional) and then you will. It’s a strange show because sometimes I’m watching it and I cry when I’m at home watching it and I think, ‘I was there, what am I doing crying again?”‘
Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood was also on the talk show with Fielding and fellow judge Prue Leith, and told Ross he also gets upset, and referred to popular contestant Terry, who made an emotional exit from the current series this week.
Terry touched viewers’ hearts when he broke down in tears, saying that being on Bake Off had helped him to cope with his grief following the death of his wife.
Hollywood said: “I got upset too actually… I actually watched it and I welled up a bit because I love Terry, I thought his style of baking was fantastic and when he was on song, he was flying.
“And unfortunately the best bakers have to go through and it’s not a character thing, it’s purely down to what’s on that plate.”
Leith, who joined the baking programme along with Toksvig and Fielding last year, shared that she had received some advice from predecessor Mary Berry before taking on the job.
“I asked her what Paul was like,” Leith said.
“She said, ‘Watch him!”‘ Leith joked. “No, she said, ‘He really knows his stuff but he knows more about baking than cooking and so I said, ‘It’s a baking show so that’s fine.’ And she said, ‘Yes, as long as he stays on baking.”‘
Fielding, Hollywood and Leith were joined by singer Olly Murs, comedians Kerry Godliman and Mo Gilligan on The Jonathan Ross show, which airs on Saturday September 29 at 10.05pm on ITV.
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