Nadiya Hussain, who won the Great British Bake Off in 2015, has said she wishes her grandparents were alive to see her awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours. The TV star has been recognised for her services to broadcasting and the culinary arts.
Sharing a photograph of her car with the letters MBE smeared on it, she wrote: “Even my car is crying tears of joy! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this would ever happen to me. I know my grandparents would be really proud, they wouldn’t understand what was going on, or what it means, but they would be proud none the less. Little old rice farmers family in the middle of nowhere with a grand daughter with an MBE! Who would have thought it?!”
Before her Bake Off victory, Hussain was a stay-at-home mother of three. Since then, she has built a successful broadcasting and food-writing career, becoming a household name and a leading figure for the Muslim community in the UK. Born in Luton to a Bangladeshi family, she studied for a degree in childhood and youth studies with the Open University while pregnant with her third child.
More than 13 million viewers watched her win the Bake Off trophy. She later commented on the importance of “being a brown, Muslim woman of faith who is in the public eye, because there aren’t that many of us”. After winning, she landed her own BBC One series, The Chronicles Of Nadiya, and has fronted several other shows, including Nadiya’s British Food Adventure and Time To Eat.
Hussain was invited to bake a cake for the Queen’s 90th birthday and was named by Debrett’s as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK in 2017. She has also spoken openly about her panic disorder and fronted a programme called Nadiya: Anxiety and Me in 2019, as well as highlighting racist abuse she has received and calling for equality.
