Delia Smith has opened up on how love helps her deal with fan criticism that has come her way during her time as Norwich City's majority shareholder. 

Along with her husband Michael Wynn Jones, she has had a front-row seat at Carrow Road since 1996 when she invested in the club for the first time. 

Since, Norwich have enjoyed intoxicating highs and crashing lows - now a new era of joint minority ownership is on the horizon with Mark Attanasio awaiting ratification on a shares purchase that will take him up to 40pc. 

Part of being public-facing, especially in football, is the reality that flak is likely to come from supporters and the wider world during those difficult periods. 

Smith is well-versed enough to cope with what gets thrown in her direction, from chants at Carrow Road calling for her to sell the club to individuals expressing their displeasure at her ownership directly coming throughout the years. 

The years involved with City has helped her process the criticism and she has revealed how she has learned to live with it. 

“In the very beginning, it did hurt. But I think the way to deal with it is to just accept it," Smith said.

"I know when I close my eyes at night that I’ve done everything I could possibly do for Norwich City Football Club. There isn’t possibly anything else I could do, I know that.

"I have supporters coming up to me all the time telling me not to take any notice.

"I’ll tell you how I dealt with one – I was walking down Carrow Road and had to leave early because I had a television show the next day, it was years ago.

"One supporter came right up close and said ‘you have brought our football club into the gutter and all I can say to you is please will you go.’ Answer? ‘Well, I still love you’. I meant it. It’s so wonderful to be able to deal with it in a humble way because it disarms them.

The Pink Un: Delia Smith enjoys a close relationship with Norwich City's supporters. Delia Smith enjoys a close relationship with Norwich City's supporters. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

Smith feels she has enough experience to deal with criticism that is thrown in her direction - but what does bother City's majority shareholder is when the targets are aimed elsewhere. 

Towards the end of last season, it was sporting director Stuart Webber and others who were in the firing line after a disappointing Championship campaign. 

"When I do get upset, it’s when I hear people slagging off somebody else that I love. That hurts me," Smith told the High Performance podcast, hosted by City fan Jake Humphrey. 

"Recently, the supporters were doing a bit of a chant that I didn’t like and it wasn’t about me. I know the work that goes into running a football club and the daily toil that goes into it.

"I love the supporters, and I think 90pc of them understand it, I'm sure of that. But there are these 10pc of whingers and they are all in a space now – they just whinge on.”