Love Island USA Season 7 Star Huda Opens Up About Her Abusive Father: ‘There Was A Lot of Times I Was Alone With My Dad, and There’s Things My Family Doesn’t Believe Me About’

In a raw and emotional episode of Call Her Daddy, Love Island USA season 7 contestant Huda revealed a heartbreaking portrait of her upbringing, one marked by abuse, poverty, and perseverance. Though viewers of the hit reality dating show saw only glimpses of the effervescent and outspoken personality, Huda’s sit-down with host Alex Cooper peeled back the curtain on a childhood shaped by trauma, silence, and resilience.

“I wasn’t raised with money. We played with sticks outside. We didn’t have phones until we were 16 or 17,” Huda shared early in the conversation. Born the youngest of five children to immigrant parents who came to the United States with no support system, she grew up in what she described as a highly abusive household. Her father owned his own business, and her mother was a teacher; the family struggled to make ends meet.

However, Huda revealed that the emotional toll went far deeper than financial hardship.

“My dad was extremely abusive toward my mother, toward me, and my siblings,” she recounted, holding back tears.“One vivid memory I have is hearing my dad beating the [expletive] out of my mom… I remember seeing her glasses broken and him snatching her head back and slamming the door.”

At one point during the interview, Huda became visibly emotional and asked for tissues. Cooper, also tearful, comforted her, creating a rare moment of shared vulnerability that highlighted the weight of what Huda was revealing.

Despite the chaos, Huda recalled moments of joy with her siblings. Her older sister would take them on what they called “the dinosaur trail,” a nearby construction site turned into an imaginary adventure to escape the pain at home. “We would go into the creek and just play,” she said. “My sister would make things look cooler to help us believe there were dinosaurs.”

Eventually, Huda’s mother made the courageous decision to leave the abusive relationship. One day, while her father was at work, they packed everything and moved into a modest two-bedroom, one-bath apartment. There was no washer or dryer, and her mother slept nightly on a futon meant for outdoor use.

Huda described her mother as a relentless provider who often worked three or four jobs at once, sleeping only a few hours a night. But that also meant Huda and her siblings spent long stretches without her.

“There were a lot of times where I was alone with my dad,” Huda said, implying that more happened during those times than her family ever knew or believed. “To this day, I don’t think anyone in my family believes anything that I say about that. But I’ve accepted that I know what was going on.”

Huda cut off contact with her father at 16 and has not spoken to him in eight years.

The trauma followed her outside the home as well. She spoke candidly about the relentless bullying she endured in school, including racial slurs, physical harassment, exclusion, and body shaming. “People would make terrorist comments about me. I got called that growing up. Boys would grab me, pin me against walls. I didn’t want to live anymore.”

Her mental health deteriorated during middle school. “I stopped eating for days. I was bulimic. I would chew food and then spit it into a trash can just to taste it.”

Huda says she never told anyone, not even her mother or siblings. “I kept a lot of things to myself.”

As she entered high school, things began to shift gradually. After praying for a fresh start, two girls who had bullied her moved away. “I turned a new leaf,” she said. “When someone tried to make a terrorist comment again, I shut that [expletive] down immediately.”

But even within new friend groups, Huda felt like an outsider. She was often left out of plans because of her mother’s strict rules.. Eventually, she distanced herself from those friendships and found refuge in a small dressing room at school, where she would sing, dance, and practice theater during free periods.

“Was I the best? No,” she said. “But I was still learning. I was a theater kid, period.”

As the Call Her Daddy episode progressed, it became clear that Huda’s past shaped the woman America saw on Love Island USA and why some of her reactions in the villa stemmed from deep-seated wounds.

“There were things that triggered me in that villa,” she admitted. “And I was told I was being crazy… but it’s hard when you’ve been through what I’ve been through.”

Huda’s decision to finally speak out is a powerful moment for not just Love Island fans but for survivors of abuse everywhere.

“I’m unapologetically myself,” she said. “And that didn’t resonate with a lot of people. But I’m not hiding anymore.”