This is what Nadiya has to say about why she entered GBBO

(Picture: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)

Great British Bake Off champion Nadiya Jamir Hussain has her husband to thank for pushing her to apply for the show, when she believed she had no chance of making it on to television.

She said she lacked the confidence to risk exposing any shortcomings in front of millions of viewers but was finally convinced to apply when her husband, Abdul, told her: "What's the worst that can happen?" After winning the show, the fulltime mother, born in Luton to a Bangladeshi family, vowed that never again would she allow her ambition to be constrained by self-doubt.

She said:

My husband tried to get me to apply two years ago and I said: 'Look, I don't have the confidence to do something like this'. This year he pretty much forced me and said: 'You're really good, you're really clever, you should just do it, what's the worst that will happen?' "Those were famous last words. And I did it, and I went in and I applied and every stage of the process felt unlikely and like it wasn't meant to happen. My confidence grew and then this happened.

She said one of the biggest struggles has been keeping her victory secret since filming ended:

I can't even say it. We've kept it a secret for so long, I feel like I'm doing something wrong.

One of the reasons for her popularity as a contestant - and a highlight of the series - was her wide range of facial expressions. She said:

I really didn't know that my face was that expressive. My sister said: 'Oh yeah, we knew your face did that'.

In the final, Nadiya created the wedding cake she missed out on at her own wedding in Bangladesh, which she decorated in a sari the colours of the Union Jack.

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