Sacrifice and ambition made Paul Hollywood a Bake Off Star… and it drove his move to Channel 4
The one-time telly favourite has become public enemy number one since announcing he is following Bake Off to Channel 4
HE claimed The Great British Bake Off had found the perfect recipe with him and his co-stars and that the show would go stale without them.
So it is little wonder that fans are furious with Paul Hollywood for jumping channels with the hit series, despite fellow judge Mary Berry and hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins all vowing to stay with the BBC.
The one-time telly favourite has become public enemy number one since announcing he is following Bake Off to Channel 4, with Twitter users branding him a “snake” and “Judas” for turning his back on the broadcaster that launched his career.
But those who know the steely master baker were far from surprised. Years of sacrifice, a fiercely loyal and ambitious wife and the spectre of his father’s huge success as a baker have made Paul determined to succeed at any cost.
A friend of the 50-year-old told The Sun: “Paul is one of the most driven people you will ever meet, and he was never going to go along with the rest of them at his own personal expense.
“He knows his association with Bake Off is the main thing that makes him marketable. He was never going to walk away.
“It wasn’t a case of if he was going to sign with Channel 4, it was when. He was holding out for the best possible deal.”
As ruthless as he is charming, Paul is uncompromising when it comes to his career. Inspired by the hard-won success of his father, who had his own chain of bakeries stretching across Scotland and the North of England, he dreams of building his own empire.
He is said to believe that being at the helm of the new-look Bake Off, free of his former co-stars, could make him a bigger name than ever.
Paul wants to be the master and rival his dad
Lured to Channel 4 by a £1.2million three-year pay deal, not even the offer of a presenting slot on Top Gear could keep car-mad Paul at the Beeb.
He is thought to be paid less than £100,000 a year by the corporation, while his company, Paul Hollywood Ltd, held profits of £1.4million at the latest count in June 2015, up almost £400,000 on the previous year.
His pal went on: “He loves his cars but it’s all about baking for Paul. He wants to be seen as the ultimate master in his field — he wants to rival his dad.”
Mr Hollywood senior John is a baker who split from Paul’s mother Gillian when their son was just ten. John left the family home in Wallasey, Merseyside, and moved to York where he went on to establish a chain of bakeries called Breadwinner, stretching from Aberdeen to Lincolnshire.
Aged eight, Paul baked his first loaf and still credits his dad’s bread as the best.
The former art school student admitted “the last thing I wanted to do was be a baker” but when Paul was 18 his father bought a bakery in Merseyside and asked his son to join him, making him an offer that was “too good to resist”.
It was the start of a daily routine which saw Paul go to bed at 6pm and rise at 3am, six days a week.
Paul explained: “I enjoyed the responsibility but it was an odd life for a lad in his early twenties. I was envious of mates who had ‘normal’ lives. If I found time to have a drink with them between shifts, I’d be no good at work afterwards, so I didn’t.
“I found being the boss’s son extremely difficult. People said I was a snitch, or my dad’s eyes. After two or three years, I told my dad I wanted to go solo. He was upset, naturally.”
By then, all the things Paul had forfeited for his profession had made him more determined than ever to succeed. He went on to bake at a number of hotels around the North West, before applying for a job at London’s Dorchester hotel.
He said: “I didn’t want to move away from the North West but I was very ambitious, so I went for it and got the job.”
At 24, he was the youngest ever head baker at the high-class hotel.
From there, he went to another top hotel, The Grosvenor in Chester, before being poached by a hotel group setting up in Cyprus.
He stayed for six years after falling in love with the island — and his future wife, Alexandra, with whom he has a son, Josh, 15. After a television appearance in Cyprus, Paul returned to Britain, signed with an agent and in 1999 co-hosted digital channel Taste’s Use Your Loaf with chef James Martin.
RELATED STORIES
It gave him a taste for telly but he was still a relative unknown in 2010 when the producers of Bake Off — currently midway through its seventh series — signed him up and made him a household name.
Paul’s unlikely chemistry with Mary, who he calls “Bezza”, is widely credited as one of the main reasons for the show’s amazing success.
The pair are close. Paul says he treats her “like his mum” and that he can “never pass her house without calling her”.
His no-nonsense criticism and perfectionist standards provided the perfect on-screen balance for Mary’s warm homeliness. He has said of his judging style: “Cruel to be kind is the only way.”
And however harsh his panning of some contestants may be, pals insist it is no act for the cameras.
One said: “Paul has been criticised this series for being too mean. Viewers think he is playing it up because he wants to be Simon Cowell. But that’s how he is. He’s a tough guy with high standards. He learned that at his father’s knee.”
There is no one Paul is tougher on than himself. He was devastated when his Kent bakery, Paul Hollywood Artisan Bread, which supplied Waitrose and Harrods, went into liquidation in 2014, leaving £60,000 of debt.
It followed the failure of Hollywood Bread, which was dissolved with debts of £262,000 in 2003.
Paul’s dad, now 72, has retired from baking and lives in Alicante, Spain. But he still casts a long shadow — and Paul will not rest until he has stepped out from it.
The source said: “Paul desperately wants to make a success of a bakery and the collapse of his businesses is a real sore point.
"Despite his TV career the old-fashioned achievements of his father remain out of reach and that bothers him.”
Paul insists he does not enjoy his celebrity status but he has made the most of it, cashing in with a range of expensive products, including £20 sandwich tins and recipe books.
His wife constantly pushes him to be better
He is credited with creating the priciest bread in Britain — a £15 almond and Roquefort loaf — and has registered his name as a trademark for an extensive list of potential products and services, including mineral water and hotel supplies.
His wariness of fame — something he has called “a dangerous, dangerous business” — is perhaps down to his ill-fated attempt to crack the US, which resulted in disastrous ratings, the temporary collapse of his marriage and months of bad press.
The American Baking Competition was axed after just one series and was overshadowed by Paul’s affair with Mexican co-star Marcela Valladolid. It led to a public split with wife Alex, who was so traumatised that she lost 2st in eight weeks.
The pair reunited a year later, with Paul describing his straying as “the biggest mistake of my life”.
The split gave the public an insight into the enterprising character of Mrs Hollywood. She took advantage of being thrust into the spotlight to launch her own cookery career, appearing on breakfast television and releasing a recipe book.
A source close to the couple said: “That’s the sort of person Alex is, resourceful to say the least. If anything, she’s even more ambitious than Paul. She’s the one in the background, constantly pushing him to be better and better.”
Friends say Alex is delighted Paul has signed with C4 and hopes he could be as big as Jamie Oliver.
But TV commentators say the Hollywoods’ expectations may be too high. While Mary, Mel and Sue have ensured their status as national treasures by swearing loyalty to the BBC, viewers have turned on Paul for what looks like a decision driven by self-interest.
There are doubts over whether he has the charisma to keep the show going on his own, with the risk that Channel 4 viewers may conclude, like the Americans did, that he is simply too “insipid and boring”.
A TV insider said: “The history of BBC stars who defect for big-money deals is not good. Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley, Trinny and Susannah, Mary Portas — none could match the success they once had.
“There is definitely a big question mark over Paul’s ability to make the move a success — especially given that his decision has gone down so badly with viewers.”