Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain: Racist abuse is 'part of my life'

Winner of The Great British Bake Off, Nadiya Hussain, has said that racist abuse "has become part of my life".

The 31-year-old added that she is "astounded" that she has been credited for her positive effect on race relations with the Muslim community as she described the anti-Islamic abuse she still suffers.

Becoming the latest castaway on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Ms Hussain said that the abuse she has suffered has made her even more determined to be a role model to her children and the wider Muslim community.

During her 10 years as a stay-at-home mother, Ms Hussain admitted she "got so bogged down in being the best housewife that I lost myself a little bit".

The mother-of-three added that she became isolated and "trapped in this bubble" where she only spoke to close family and feared strangers' judgement.

Talking about her own childhood, from living in Bangladesh to the family's reliance on her grandmother while her parents looked after her two seriously ill siblings in hospital, Hussain revealed she bought her parents' first house for them at the age of 19.

She explained that she was working two jobs at the time and would see her parents' landlord walk into their house whenever he wanted and tell her mother it was not clean enough so she asked to buy it from him.

When presenter Kirsty Young commented that was unusual, Ms Hussain replied: "I've spent my whole life watching my parents sacrifice things for me so buying a house was nothing. I couldn't bear the fact that someone would come in and treat my mum like a second-class citizen."

Among the tracks she chose was Counting Crows' Accidentally In Love. Hussain was 19 when she tied the knot in an arranged marriage to husband Abdul, and he would play the song in the background while they conducted their six-month courtship over the phone.

She revealed he still serenades her with the song every single day.