‘Great British Bake Off’ winner Nadiya Hussain has opened up about the racial abuse she’s received throughout her life, saying that it’s something she absolutely expects. Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Hussain said she mostly receives abuse after "massive things happen" in the news, especially after September 11 2001.

Nadiya Hussain‘Great British Bake Off’ winner Nadiya Hussain

”I've had things thrown at me and [been] pushed and shoved," she said. "I feel like that's just become a part of my life now. I expect it. Absolutely I expect it. I expect to be shoved or pushed or verbally abused because that happens. It's been happening for years.”

When asked by host Kirsty Young how she reacts, Hussain said she choses to be the better person. "I feel like there's a dignity in silence, and I think if I retaliate to negativity with negativity, then we've evened out," she said.

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"And I don't need to even that out because if somebody's being negative, I need to be the better person. Because I've got young children, the one thing I don't want my kids to do is have a negative attitude to living in the UK because, yes, there are those negative people, but they are the minority."

“I love being British and I love living here and this is my home and it always will be,” she added. "Regardless of all the other things that define me, this is my home. And I want my kids to be proud of that, and I don't want my kids to grow up with a chip on their shoulder.”

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"So I live as positively as I can and all those things that do happen to me, hey, it happens but it happens to other people too and we deal with it.” Hussain was crowned the winner of the ‘Great British Bake Off’ last October in a final watched by 15 million people on BBC One.

In January she was named by Debrett's as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK. Since her win Hussain has released a book, Nadiya's Kitchen and appeared as a regular panelist on ITV’s ‘Loose Women’.