TV celebrity Nadiya Hussain has revealed she was sexually assaulted by a relative at the age of five while living in Bangladesh.
Nadiya, the winner of 2015’s Great British Bake Off, said her childhood trauma left her suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic attacks and suicidal thoughts.
“No doubt that would have played a role in my PTSD, my panic disorder,” said the 34-year-old with You magazine.
“It must have done because it’s a memory that has stayed with me forever.”
The former Leeds resident, confesses of having had suicidal thoughts when she was around ten-years-old. News of her mother’s pregnancy made her change her mind back then.
Realisation
She only understood what had happened to her years later during a biology lesson explaining sex, prompting her to vomit in the laboratory sink.
“If that happened to my children, I don’t even want to say what I would do. I can’t even… just as a mother… I can’t. I have no words. I very rarely have no words,” she added.
In her forthcoming book ‘Finding My Voice’ she discusses the sexual abuse she experienced, as well as being a victim of bullying at school.
Nadiya, who grew up in a Bangladeshi community in Luton said: “I’ve only told my sisters recently and, growing up, I had a close friend at school who I told. It turned out a very similar thing had happened to her,” Hussain said.
“It’s important to talk about it because it probably happens much more than we care to talk about.
“If that happened to my children, I don’t even want to say what I would do… I have no words.”
Anxiety
Earlier this year, she opened up about the bullying in BBC One documentary ‘Nadiya: Anxiety and Me’.
Also revealed was her first panic attack at 11-years-old when school bullies dunked her head in the toilet.
Viewers praised her for allowing cameras to follow her as she sought diagnosis and treatment for “extreme anxiety”.
