Former 'Great British Baking Show' star says show's theme tune makes her 'feel sick' after suffering online abuse

• Former "Great British Baking Show" finalist Ruby Tandoh revealed that she no longer watches the show.
• She said the theme song makes her "feel sick" after receiving online abuse from fans.
• She also addressed her feud with the show's judge Paul Hollywood in the "How To Fail" podcast.

Former "Great British Baking Show" star Ruby Tandoh revealed earlier this week that she no longer watches the hit baking competition series and said that the theme tune makes her "feel sick."

Tandoh, who was a finalist on the fourth season of the series, received online abuse after the show came out because some fans accused her of trying to seduce one of the show's judges, Paul Hollywood.

The food writer was vocal against her critics, especially in a tweet in 2015 where she came out as gay (via Digital Spy): "p.s. for those who thought I fancied Paul Hollywood or that I'd ever bang him to get ahead - JOKE'S ON YOU, YOU MASSIVE S---TING MISOGYNISTS." According to Metro, she deleted this tweet later after Paul Hollywood replied asking why she mentioned his name whilst she was revealing her sexuality.

Promoting her new book "Cook As You Are," Tandoh appeared on the "How To Fail" podcast with Elizabeth Day. When asked about whether she still watched "Bake Off" (the name of the baking show in the UK), the food writer laughed and told Day: "No, not at all. No, I can't. I appreciate it as a show and the format is clearly compelling but no when I hear the song, the little jingle at the start, I feel sick. I just can't have anything to do with it, I'm afraid."

"It was so so strange," Tandoh said to Day about the abuse she received during the show. "I think that people's big criticism from what I can understand was that my self-doubt was performative... That I was being self-pitying and not being entirely sincere and behind that, it was implied that I was trying to trick the judges or trying to spin things for sympathy... And on top of that, I think some people just found me annoying, which I think absolutely justifiable."

In 2013, Tandoh hit back at her critics in an Op-Ed for The Guardian saying that some of the criticisms against her were "lazy misogyny."

In the podcast episode, the food writer added: "I don't really have regrets about the way I handled myself. I think there was emotional truth to everything I said and did there."

Tandoh also addressed her feud with "Great British Baking Show" judge Paul Hollywood. In 2016, the 29-year-old wrote a series of strong tweets that have since been deleted criticizing Hollywood for staying as a judge on the show when his fellow judges left after the series moved from BBC to Channel 4.

"I don't particularly lose sleep over that," Tandoh told Day. "I don't think that he's particularly hurt by that. I don't think he's very vulnerable to the judgment of others, so yeah, that I don't feel too bad about."