Nadiya Hussain shares post accusing Ed Sheeran of ‘white tears’ and ‘becoming the victim’ after tour return
Celebrity baker and presenter Nadiya Hussain has waded into the debate surrounding Ed Sheeran and his Loop Tour following his return to the stage on Saturday night.
Mr Sheeran has faced an onslaught of criticism from fans, famous faces, and pro-Palestine activists after deciding to continue with his tour despite organisers removing rapper Macklemore from the billing over “Free Palestine” messaging during his sets.
The A Team singer took to the stage alone at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday evening after his backing band and other support acts quit the tour in solidarity with Macklemore.
Mr Sheeran chose to address the saga directly. “I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes, and I’m so, so sorry,” he said.
Nadiya Hussain shared a scathing post about Ed Sheeran with her one million Instagram followers
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INSTAGRAM/NADIYA HUSSAIN/HIGHER LOVE WITH MEGAN
Mr Sheeran told the Philadelphia audience that he had never aspired to be a politically outspoken performer, but the situation “put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet.”
He stressed that his live shows had always been intended as welcoming spaces for all, and that honouring his commitment to fans was fundamental to his identity – that was why he had chosen to press ahead with the tour on his own.
Turning to the conflict itself, he described the attack on Israel during the Nova Music Festival on October 7 as “horrific,” saying it had “compounded centuries of Jewish pain.”
On the situation in Gaza, he added: “What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.” He branded the scale of civilian and child casualties “heartbreaking” and insisted that the “systemic injustice” unfolding in the West Bank “cannot be overlooked.”
Ed Sheeran has previously refused to be dragged into political discussions
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GETTYWhen it came to Macklemore’s dismissal and billionaire venue owner Robert Kraft’s involvement in the decision, he warned that the notion of venues demanding to pre-approve what artists say or perform on stage should “never happen in the free world.”
Later in the show, he said the past seven days had been “the worst week of his life”, claimed he’d been abandoned by friends and family members, and revealed the ordeal led to him contemplating whether to quit as an artist or not.
He also revealed he was working behind the scenes to figure out the best ways he can assist with the crisis in the region.
Making her feelings on Mr Sheeran’s statements known, Ms Hussain was clearly unimpressed as she published a scathing post from Megan Cooper, a “Trauma-Informed Holistic Coach & Therapist”, on her own page.
In the social media post, Ms Cooper said to the camera: “We’re all waking up to Ed Sheeran’s statement on stage, and I’m not going to go into what he said, but I do want to focus on one specific point.”
She prefaced her opinion by saying she was a “deeply emotional person” whose “job is to hold space for human expression and emotion” before adding that she wasn’t being “discompassionate towards Ed’s individual experience.”
In the clip, Ms Cooper went on: “But for those of us in white bodies, we need to understand and educate ourselves on white tears.
“White tears is a cultural tactic using emotion, consciously or unconsciously, to deflect accountability, to gain sympathy, and to centre self in conflict and challenge, particularly during discussions around racism and oppression.
Nadiya Hussain was the face of a number of BBC cooking shows | BBC
“What happens is we become the victim. Our emotion is now prized above the actual issue, in this case, genocide. What this shines a light on is whose tears get to be seen, listened to, and heard in our society, and whose don’t.”
In the case of Mr Sheeran, Ms Cooper claimed: “Not only does emotion meet whiteness, but it also meets patriarchy”.
She went on: “So what we have is not just tears, it’s power. If the tears of Palestinians and black and brown and indigenous communities carried as much gravity, genocide would not happen.”
She signed off by saying people “in white bodies” need “to educate and inform ourselves so that we don’t replicate systems of harm whilst we are trying to dismantle them”.
Macklemore and Ed Sheeran had been friends for over a decade | GETTY
Great British Bake Off winner Ms Hussain published the clip to her one million Instagram followers via her Stories.
This isn’t the first time Ms Hussain has waded into the ongoing conversation surrounding Palestine, regularly using her social media platform to promote pro-Palestinian causes and condemn Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Since winning Bake Off in 2015, Ms Hussain went on to enjoy a successful career on the BBC as the face of a number of cooking shows before her departure from the corporation last year.
Ms Hussain went on to claim that her “opinions” and the fact that she no longer “fitted in a box” played a part in her exit.
She joins a long list of stars who’ve criticised Mr Sheeran’s actions over the past week, including Billy Bragg, Paloma Faith, Lewis Hamilton, and many more.
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