{"id":445162,"date":"2026-02-25T17:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/445162\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T17:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:32:09","slug":"was-sick-all-the-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/445162\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Was sick all the time!’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain has tearfully revealed that she has stepped down from her position as a teaching assistant at Giles Brook Primary School in Milton Keynes after spending just over three months in the role.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old baker, who claimed victory in the 2015 series of the BBC competition, announced the news with her million-plus Instagram followers on Monday.<\/p>\n

Ms Hussain was moved to tears in the emotional video as she opened up about the decision after stepping back from TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I had to make a really tough decision, one of the toughest I’ve ever had to make was stepping away from that job,” Ms Hussain told her followers.<\/p>\n

\"NadiyaNadiya Hussain was the face of a number of BBC cooking shows | BBC<\/p>\n

She had been working with Year One pupils in the Crickets Class, according to a publicly available school newsletter that announced her appointment in October.<\/p>\n

Ms Hussain, who lives with fibromyalgia, a chronic condition causing widespread pain and fatigue, explained that the school environment proved impossible for someone with a compromised immune system.<\/p>\n

“As you know, anyone who works in a school setting, there are lots of coughs and colds, bugs, and I just couldn’t get better,” she said.<\/p>\n

The constant illness began affecting her mental wellbeing, leaving her unable to perform at her best.<\/p>\n

“I was sick all the time, and it got to the point where it was affecting my mental health, and I just wasn’t performing, giving my best because I was always sick,” Ms Hussain revealed.<\/p>\n

She was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2024 and also suffers from a gastrointestinal autoimmune disease that impacts her gut and vitamin absorption.<\/p>\n

Stress can exacerbate her symptoms, and she alleges that the uncertainty surrounding her television career had already taken a physical toll.<\/p>\n

Ms Hussain sought the teaching role after BBC bosses decided not to recommission her cookery programme last year. <\/p>\n

\"NadiyaNadiya Hussain has been a familiar face on cookery TV since winning Bake Off in 2015 | PA<\/p>\n

Following more than a decade on screen with shows such as Nadiya Bakes, Nadiya’s Fast Flavours and Nadiya’s Simple Spices, she found herself uncertain about her future direction.<\/p>\n

Despite supposedly receiving approaches from rival broadcasters, including Channel 4 and ITV, she chose to pursue work in education rather than continue in television.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always wanted to work with children in younger years as a teaching assistant,” she explained, adding that the application process itself was daunting.<\/p>\n

Ms Hussain described the role as “one of the best jobs I’ve ever done” aside from raising her own three children, recalling how she woke each morning “with a spring in my step” eager to see the pupils.<\/p>\n

\"NadiyaNadiya Hussain worked with the BBC for the best part of a decade | BBC<\/p>\n

Fellow celebrities rallied around Ms Hussain on social media. Actress Lisa Faulkner, who won Celebrity MasterChef, wrote: “You are brilliant and I love you.”<\/p>\n

Television doctor Dr Amir Khan added: “As a doctor I totally get this. You have to look after your health and I’ve no doubt you will find a way to work with children where you and they both thrive.”<\/p>\n

\"NadiyaNadiya starred in several BBC cookery shows during her time with the corporation | BBC<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, fellow Bake Off star and Strictly Come Dancing contestant John Whaite penned: “You\u2019re an inspiration in everything you do.”<\/p>\n

And former Bake Off winner Rahul Mandal weighed in: “We all are in the same boat of figuring stuff out. You always inspire me and thanks for speaking out and being you.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain has tearfully revealed that she has stepped down from her position…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[243,6491,830,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-445162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-bbc","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}