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Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain has spoken out about the Channel 4 series

More than a decade since she was crowned winner of The Great British Bake Off and became one of TV’s most successful new stars, Nadiya Hussain has admitted that she no longer watches the Channel 4 show.

Despite going on to enjoy a huge TV career, the last 12 months have proved something of a torrid time for the 41-year-old mum-of-three as the BBC cancelled her shows.

In a new interview with the Radio Times, Nadiya admits “it’s sad” how it ended but “near the end” of her relationship with the Beeb, she had voiced concerns about how her programmes were being made.

And as far as Bake Off is concerned, she admits it’s not a show she watches any more. She said: “The magic has disappeared for me. Sometimes it feels like it’s competing with some of the shows on Netflix where it’s bigger and bolder and more outrageous, and I don’t think it needs any of that. It’s a beautiful show, it’s a classic.”

As for new judge Nigella Lawson replacing Prue Leith, Nadia said: “Nigella’s got a lot to live up to following Prue. It’s very easy to become quite stuffy and very proper, and I love that she’s got a little wild streak about her. I want to be like Prue when I’m older. If I get to that lovely age.”

Following her triumph on GBBO in 2015, Nadiya went on to front numerous BBC shows including Nadiya Bakes, Nadiya’s Fast Flavours and Nadiya’s Simple Spices. She has also appeared as a guest panellist on ITV’s Loose Women.

Other achievements include being named by Debrett’s as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK, included on BBC News’ 100 Women list and invited to bake a cake for the 90th birthday celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II.

After gaining a publishing deal she was also shortlisted for Children’s Book of the Year prize at the British Book Awards for Bake Me A Story.

However, in a social media post last year, the presenter disclosed that the BBC had axed her series, calling it a “turning point” in her professional journey.

At the time, a BBC spokesperson said: “After several wonderful series we have made the difficult decision not to commission another cookery show with Nadiya Hussain at the moment. Nadiya remains a much-valued part of the BBC family, and we look forward to working together on future projects.”

In conversation with the Sun’s Fabulous magazine, she reflected: “The last year has been physically and mentally one of the hardest so my next biggest achievement would be choosing myself and deciding what’s right for me.”

This follows Nadiya describing her three children, Musa, 19, Dawud, 18, and Maryam, 15, as her “biggest achievement”. Nadiya shares her children with husband Abdal Hussain, whom she wed in Bangladesh at the age of 20.

Following the axing of her programme, she took the decision to switch careers and move into education. She’s now employed in schools as a teaching assistant, with aspirations of potentially qualifying as a teacher down the line.

She revealed that other broadcasters, including ITV and Channel 4, approached her about another series, but insists it’s “not something that I want to do”.

Speaking to woman&home magazine, she explained: “I’m currently working as a teaching assistant at a lovely little primary school. The plan is to gain some training and maybe in the future become a teacher.”

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A woman who was mauled by a dog at a Los Angeles city animal shelter has been awarded $5.4 million by a jury.

Genice Horta, 51, said that neither the shelter nor the rescue group she worked for told her the dog, a Belgian Malinois named Maximus, had bitten a teenager and a shelter employee, sending both to the hospital.

After six surgeries to repair the bones and nerves in her right arm, Horta was left with permanent damage, according to a brief by her attorneys in the lawsuit she filed in 2022.

After a 10-day trial, the L.A. County Superior Court jury decided last week that the city was 62.5% liable, the rescue group was 25% liable and Horta was 12.5% liable for medical expenses and pain and suffering.

It was the third multi-million payout in recent years involving allegations that the city animal shelters failed to notify potential adopters that a dog had bitten and seriously injured someone, as required by state law.

Horta’s case “revealed a series of serious and preventable mistakes made with respect to warning about Maximus’ bite history and adopting out and failing to control a dangerous dog,” one of her attorneys, Ivan Puchalt, said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the L.A. City Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.

Agnes Sibal-von Debschitz, communications director for LA Animal Services, said in statement that according to department policy, “staff must provide a bite and behavioral disclosure to any person receiving an animal with a prior bite history.”

The policy was formally enacted last November in response to a $3.25-million settlement reached by the city with Kristin Wright, who was severely injured by a pit bull she adopted from the South L.A. shelter. Wright said the shelter didn’t inform her that the dog had bitten his previous owner’s elderly mother in the face.

The rescue group, HIT Living Foundation, did not respond to a request for comment.

HIT Living Foundation hired Horta to drive Maximus from the East Valley Animal Shelter to Arizona. She had no prior experience with shelter dogs, according to the city’s attorneys.

On Sept. 23, 2020, after a shelter employee told Horta that Maximus had “kennel anxiety,” she offered the dog a treat containing trazodone, a common anxiety medication for dogs, according to an amended complaint by Horta’s attorneys.

Maximus took the treat, then lunged and latched onto Horta’s right hand and arm. A fuzzy video of the attack was played in court during the trial.

Horta alleged that the shelter employee who brought Maximus to her car negligently failed to control him and never told her the dog could be dangerous. During the attack, the employee was gripping a metal pole with a cable looped around Maximus’ neck.

The employee, Jose Humildad, testified that he told Horta not to approach Maximus with the treat.

Maximus’ previous owners surrendered him to the shelter after he bit their 15-year-old daughter on the foot, leaving deep puncture wounds and requiring hospital treatment, according to the brief by Horta’s attorneys, and several weeks later, Maximus bit a shelter employee who went to the emergency room for a severe bite to the abdomen.

Horta said she never was told of the attacks, which made Maximus unsuitable for public adoption, and he was placed on the city’s New Hope list, which is accessible to registered nonprofit rescues.

Shelter employees had documented Maximus “viciously biting and snapping at people walking past his enclosure,” according to the brief by Horta’s attorneys. One employee wrote “USE EXTREME CAUTION!!!”

Horta’s attorneys argued that Maximus was so dangerous that he should have been euthanized.

The city pushed back on that interpretation.

L.A. animal shelters are not “death row in Mississippi at midnight,” Deputy City Atty. Joshua Quinones said in his closing argument Thursday afternoon. “This is a rescue operation.”

Quinones also argued that Maximus already had been sold to HIT Living Foundation when he bit Horta.

Trying to find Maximus a home, animal rescuers posted repeatedly on Instagram days before the 1-year-old dog bit Horta, describing him as a “handsome misunderstood pup” and a “young troublemaker” in danger of being euthanized.

The post said Maximus had a bite history but provided no details.