Nadiya Hussain has renewed her criticism of the BBC, claiming she was dropped from the broadcaster after raising concerns about the framing of her programmes. The 41-year-old, who rose to fame after winning The Great British Bake Off in 2015, told Radio Times that tensions had been building behind the scenes before her shows were cancelled.
Hussain said she challenged senior figures over the focus on her appearance rather than her recipes. “I had really difficult conversations,” she said. “I was like: ‘These are the people I don't want to work with any more. This doesn't align with me anymore. I need the recipes to be the focus. I need it to be less about what I'm wearing, the props and the colour of my lipstick. It needs to be about the food.’ Not long after, my show was cancelled.”
The Daily Mail previously reported that Hussain had been dropped due to declining popularity and being “increasingly hard to work with”. However, Hussain rejected these claims, suggesting double standards. “Unfortunately, as a woman – and a woman of colour – if you speak up, often it's considered ‘being difficult’ or ‘being a nuisance’, whereas I know, from experience, that if I was a man, they'd be like: ‘Oh, you know what he's like’,” she said.
A BBC spokesperson told The Standard: “After many wonderful series we made the difficult decision not to commission another cookery show with Nadiya Hussain for the time being.” Hussain also revealed she no longer watches Bake Off, saying it feels like it is “competing with some of the shows on Netflix where it's bigger and bolder and more outrageous”. She added that watching it back “stresses me out because I remember the anxiety I was feeling”.
