Nadiya Hussain tells Loose Women racial bullying at school caused her anxiety

Hussain said her former classmates smeared her face with white chalk
Emma Powell20 June 2016
The Weekender

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Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain has opened up about her struggle with anxiety, saying it was triggered by a racist incident in primary school.

Hussain said she has battled with panic attacks since she was seven years-old – but only recognised it was anxiety in her late teens.

Speaking on Loose Women, the baking enthusiast recalled the moment she believes triggered her panic attacks.

"I think back to where I remember that moment distinctly, I was seven years old and I used to get bullied quite a lot for my skin colour because I had dark skin,” she said.

"These boys they held me up against a white board, you know when we were younger and we had those chalk boards and the chalk would all fall at the bottom, so they held me up against this chalk board.

"They got the chalk dust and smothered my face in it and I remember that moment being stood there thinking: ‘Everyone is looking at me and everybody is watching me and I don't know what to do’.

“Every time I have that feeling it reminds me of that moment.”

The mother-of-three said she still battles with anxiety and struggled during her stint on the Great British Bake Off.

She said there have been times where she’s ‘cried it out of her system’ and had to breath into a brown paper bag.

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Hussain who recently announced plans for a second marriage to her husband Abdal Hussain is calling for anxiety to be recognised as a medical issue.

"I know I'll always have it. I feel it every now and again. I know it’s there," she said.

"Challenging myself makes it easy. I welcome awkward and difficult situations because it challenges me to say: 'You can do this'.

"I'm learning to deal with this much better. It's a real problem. We need to see it as a medical issue. It needs to be recognised.'

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