'Bake Off' Winner Nadiya Hussain Reveals The Day Of Her Arranged Marriage Was One Of The "Worst" Of Her Life

Nadiya Hussain, the winner of last year’s ‘Great British Bake Off’, has spoken about her childhood and teenage years as part of a new documentary and has described the day of her arranged marriage to her husband as “one of the worst days” of her life.

She married her husband of 11 years, Abdal, in an arranged marriage when she was 19 years old and, despite having had three children together since, said that things initially got off to a bumpy start in their married life.

“I have to say my wedding day was one of the worst days of my life,” the 31 year old Bangladeshi-British author and baker said in her new two-part BBC documentary ‘The Chronicles of Nadiya’, according to The Daily Mirror on Monday (August 15th).

“One of the unspoken rules is as a bride you have to behave submissively and look downcast,” she continued. “I was an emotional wreck and I cried through the whole thing. I didn’t smile very much.”

In the programme, the first episode of which is due to be broadcast on BBC One at 9pm on August 24th immediately after the return of the seventh series of ‘Bake Off’, Nadiya travels from her birthplace in Luton to her ancestral home in rural Bangladesh.

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“You are literally on show and it’s something I was always really uncomfortable with. The bride will often keep her head down. I never really understood it. It’s bizarre a bride is unhappy on her wedding day when really she should be happy.”

Although her marriage has eventually worked out well, she said she “wouldn’t dream” of doing the same thing for her kids.

“If I was the person I am now, I certainly would not have gone into a contract,” she argued. “I wouldn’t take out a mortgage contract without knowing how much money I am putting in and what my mortgage is, so why would I sign a marriage contract where I don’t know what I am getting myself into? I want something different for my children. I wouldn’t dream of arranging a marriage.”

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