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Prue Leith announced Sophie Faldo as winner of Bake Off 2017 Channel 4

Prue Leith suffered an epic social media blunder yesterday (31 October) after announcing the winner of The Great British Bake Off on Twitter 12 hours before the finale aired.

Though she quickly realised her mistake and deleted the tweet, the damage was already done and the media pounced on the gaffe.

Leith tweeted to viewers' dismay: "No one told me judging a GBBO final would be so emotional. Bravo Sophie."

Despite the mistake, Channel 4 bosses have revealed that she will not be fired.

Paul Hollywood, Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding are also set to return for next year's series.

An insider told The Mirror: "We can't be angry with Prue because we love her so much.

"It's hard to be cross for something that was just an awful mistake. No one's going to feel worse about it than she does herself. She's mortified."

Leith is currently on holiday in Bhutan which is six hours ahead of the UK, telling one reporter: "I f***ed up".

She said: "I'm in Bhutan. The time difference is massive. I thought that they got it six hours ago. I'm in too much of a state to talk about it."

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Pixelated screengrab of Prue Leith's tweet naming the winner Twitter

Leith later issued an apology stating: "I am so sorry to the fans for my mistake this morning, I am in a different time zone and mortified by my error."

Following the Twitter mishap, the social media sharing site exploded with memes from angry viewers mocking Leith.

Robert Pupkin tweeted: "Nobody told me judging the Gaffe of the Year 2017 would be so emotional. Bravo Prue."

Another viewer said: "As long as you didn't announce who won the show hours ahead of it showing on TV, after Channel 4 paid millions for the show, then you're ok."

Despite pretty much the whole country finding out the Bake Off results ahead of the finale – it was still watched by 7.3m live viewers, according to overnight figures. That rose to 7.7m when including those watching on Channel 4 +1.

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Paul Hollywood, Sandi Toksvig, Noel Fielding and Prue Leith will all be returning to the Bake Off next year Channel 4