I’M NOT A VILLAIN
HADIL Sadeq has never liked the word “villain”.
So when she realised she would be branded as one on Channel 7’s My Kitchen Rules she got ready to go into hiding with her two young sons at their Clifton Beach home.
“People make mistakes in private. But when you make a mistake on national television? Forget about it, that is on another level,” she told the Cairns Post.
“I had to focus on what’s important during the show and that was my mental health.
“I’ve never suffered from such chronic anxiety. It got to the point where I realised how these teenagers end up getting to the point where they are suicidal.”
She said the aftermath from the show was worse than she could have ever imagined.
“Nobody anticipated it,” she said. “It ended up becoming a soap opera and we were all a part of it. I really thought I signed up for a cooking show. It was, especially this year, anything but a cooking show.”
She said protecting her sons, who are aged six and four, was her sole focus since the start of the year when the show began screening.
“Priority number one is my children,” she said.
“This experience was really hard because I had to be mum and focus on being the best mum that I can be and also battle my own battles internally with the cyber bullying. That was the hardest thing.”
But, she said, she wouldn’t shy away from her now-infamous rant against contestants Jess and Emma on the show.
“People tell me that those things came out of my mouth. Absolutely. I admit that and I own that and I’ve apologised for it,” she said. “But what people don’t realise is the context and why those things are being said.”
But, she said, both current and past cast members were right there to support both her and her teammate Sonya Mefaddi during their spot in the limelight.
“I’ve reached out to a few (past cast members) and a lot of people from different seasons have showed their support by messaging us,” she said.
Now Ms Sadeq is working on rebranding and starting her very own cooking show based in the Far North.
“I’m a foodie first and foremost,” she said.
“I want to bring it back to the food and away from the drama,” she said.
“Eventually I want to do my own show based on a paddock to plate approach.
“I think we live in the most beautiful place on Earth. My dream was to always have my own show.”