The TV personality Nadiya Hussain has been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours.
Hussain, who won the Great British Bake Off in 2015, has been honoured for her services to broadcasting and to the culinary arts.
She shared a photograph of her car on social media with the letters MBE smeared on it and wrote: “Even my car is crying tears of joy! Thank you for all the kind words and absolutely wonderful messages! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this would ever happen to me.
“I know my grandparents would be really proud, they wouldn’t understand what was going on, or what it means, but they would be proud none the less. I just know it ! Little old rice farmers family in the middle of nowhere with a grand daughter with an MBE! Who would have thought it?! I wish they were alive to enjoy this moment with us!
“I have had an exhilarating and exciting few years and I have done weird, wonderful and scary things. Long may it continue. Thanks to all the people who have supported me and believed in me and just made it all just a little bit easier. For all the love. For believing in me. Thank you!”
Before being crowned winner of the sixth series of Bake Off, Hussain was a stay-at-home mother-of-three, but since winning she has carved out a successful broadcasting and food-writing career, making her a household name.
Born in Luton to a Bangladeshi family, after winning Bake Off Hussain landed her own TV series on BBC One, a travelling cookery show called The Chronicles Of Nadiya.
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She later went on to front the series Nadiya’s British Food Adventure, Nadiya’s Family Favourites and Time To Eat.
The 35-year-old was also the co-presenter of The Big Family Cooking Showdown with Zoe Ball and has been a guest panellist on Loose Women.
