"These stars represent my five unborn children"— The Great British Bake Off's Nelly opens up about her miscarriages

With a new week comes a new episode of The Great British Bake Off which premiered its second episode of Collection 12 on October 4, 2024. Among the 12 contestants who entered the competition, Nelly opened up about her unfortunate past in one of the challenges in the second episode.

For the unversed, the show is known as The Great British Baking Show in the US, and the episodes air three days later than in the UK. Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond return to the show to take over the presenting duties while Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood judge the 12 amateur bakers who want to take home the title.

Nelly baked up a biscuit filled with puppets and named it ‘Forest Dance’ Biscuit Puppet Theatre during the showstopper challenge on The Great British Bake Off. While making cookies, Nelly opened up about her personal tragedy and how she wanted to bring it up in her creation.

Nelly created a scene that was filled with trees and stars and revealed that she created the puppet scene by taking inspiration from her painful experience of losing five children during pregnancy. While making the cookies specifically, she pointed out what they meant:

"So, these stars represent my five unborn children. This was twins. And they belong there. Even if you don't birth them, you carry them in you, all your life, you've got the genes in, so I can't miss them on my show, can I?"

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Nelly sees the light in the darkness on The Great British Bake Off

The Great British Bake Off presents different themes each week that the bakers have to comply with during its 10-week run. The different themes are Cake, Biscuit, Bread, Caramel, Dessert, Pastry, and in addition, two new themes were also introduced which were dubbed Autumn and 1970s.

The second week saw contestants competing in Biscuit Week as Jeff and Hazel were eliminated. Nelly further explained the metaphor behind the darkness of the forest and the significance of her stars:

"You're going in your life through so many obstacles and the forest represents all these horrible obstacles which we have to do in our life. And it's dark and it's painful, but in every tunnel, in every forest, is a light. Maybe small, teeny weeny, but it will get there," stated Nelly.

She hung the stars on top signifying how her unborn children were also up there looking at the world.

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The Great British Baking Show star Nelly is a self-taught baker

The 44-year-old contestant on The Great British Bake Off is a palliative care assistant from Dorset. Despite her setback with pregnancy, Nelly and her husband have been blessed with two young boys for whom she dedicates the most time. Originally from Slovakia, Nelly had aspirations of studying nursing for which she later moved to Austria.

Nelly's father was an avid baker and often baked bread for Nelly during her childhood. Since her father did not like sweet bakes, Nelly taught herself how to bake some. After years of home experience, Nelly prefers to add ingredients of Slovakian cuisine to her baking. She also adds spices to honor her husband's Pakistani heritage.

Other than her work, Nelly uses her creative talents to make jewelry and in her spare time, watches true crime content on the telly.

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The third episode of The Great British Bake Off will be available on Netflix on 11 October 2024 in the US while the UK audience can enjoy the episode on October 8 at 8 pm on Channel 4.