Bake Off star Nadiya Hussain shares horrifying account of child sexual abuse at the hands of a relative when she was just five years old

Daily Mail​

15-07-2025

Nadiya Hussain has shared a horrifying account of child sexual abuse at the hands of a relative in a new interview.
The TV chef, 40, rose to fame in 2015 when she won the Great British Bake Off and in the years since has hosted several documentaries and cooking segments.
But in an honest conversation with Paul C Brunson on Tuesday's We Need To Talk podcast, Nadiya shared heartbreaking details about her childhood.
Nadiya spoke about being sexually assaulted aged just five years old by her cousin, and revealed why she has never spoken to her parents about it.
'As a five year old I was sexually abused by my own cousin and I didn't really know that that was sexual abuse until I was in my biology lesson in year eight and we were having we would it was a sex education class,' Nadiya said.
'And the penny dropped. I put the two together and I was like, that happened to me - and then I just… I remember vomiting profusely and my teacher said, "are you unwell?" And I said, "no, I'm fine".
Nadiya spoke about being sexually assaulted aged just five years old by her cousin, and revealed why she has never spoken to her parents about it
'And that was it. Didn't tell the teacher, didn't say anything, just quietly… because this was a cousin that I was around all the time.
'He was there all the time, and he was in our house and he was upstairs, and he was everywhere.
Paul asked: 'What was your family's reaction in hindsight, knowing that this was happening to you as a little girl?'
Nadiya replied: 'We don't talk about it. Nobody talks about it. Nobody. But my sisters. I talk with my sisters.
'I can sit here and tell the whole world, but I cannot have that conversation with my mum and dad ever.'
Elaborating on why she doesn't speak to her parents about the abuse, Nadia said: 'Would I like to… if they were different people, yeah. I know them too well, I know that, I know what I'd be met with.
'I live in a community where the men are protected. And to be fair, we live in a society where men are always protected.
'And I don't want anyone to say that it was my fault, because I think that's what I'm going to hear. And I think I don't want to hear that.
'As a five year old I was sexually abused by my own cousin and I didn't really know that that was sexual abuse until I was in my biology lesson in year eight and we were having we would it was a sex education class,' Nadiya said
'If I hear that, I lose it and I don't want to hear that. What I would hate to see is… I feel like I would be blamed and he would be protected, and I just can't dig that up.'
Elsewhere in the chat, Nadiya went on to reveal that she received so many death threats while on Bake Off that producers moved into her home.
'Week nine of Bake Off, I had to have the production team live in my house because of the death threats. I had so many death threats.
'I had professional people sending emails, very graphic emails, about how they'd like me to die, how they would like to abuse me, how they wished that my children get TB and die slow and painful deaths.'
She also revealed her children have experienced more racism at a younger age than she did growing up, as she .
'The first time I ever experienced racism was the day the Twin Towers came down,' Nadiya said.
'I was in college, I was 18, I was walking home and two white men stopped their van, parked up, screeched to a halt, came out, spat in my face and drove off, and I cried all the way home and I had no idea what happened.
'And I was sobbing and I came in and dad was watching the telly and I said Oh, this is what's happened. And it has never stopped since.
'But my kids have experienced more racism at a younger age because, you know, they've been called terrorists and they'll wear their Friday robes for Friday prayer.'