Honestly, if you only know Huda Mustafa from her "Mommy? Mamacita" viral TikTok audio or that explosive fallout with Jeremiah Brown, you’re basically missing the entire plot. It’s easy to look at a reality TV "villain" and think they just sprouted out of the Fiji sand fully formed and ready to cause chaos. But the version of Huda we saw on Love Island USA Season 7 was the result of a life that was anything but a tropical vacation.
She didn't just walk onto our screens at 24. She dragged a lot of heavy history with her.
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Most fans don't realize that huda before love island wasn't just some fitness influencer living a "grid-perfect" life in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her background is actually a pretty intense story of survival, cultural pressure, and a total lack of the privilege people assumed she had.
The Childhood No One Saw on Peacock
While most of the Islanders were chatting about their favorite bars back home, Huda was carrying around memories that would make most people crumble. She’s been very open—post-villa, at least—about growing up in an "extremely abusive" household. We’re talking about a level of trauma where she literally had to cut her father out of her life at 16.
She wasn't a "rich kid" influencer. Not even close.
Her parents were immigrants who came to the U.S. with basically zero support. Her dad ran a business and her mom was a teacher, but they struggled. Huda has described a childhood where she and her four siblings played with sticks by a creek and didn't even have cell phones until they were nearly adults. It sounds like a different world compared to the high-glam lifestyle she portrays now.
She spent years watching her father treat her mother in ways no kid should see—hearing glass shatter and doors slamming. When you realize she spent her formative years in a "pressure cooker" at home, her "Hurricane Huda" reactions in the villa start to make a lot more sense. She was clocking triggers that most of us wouldn't even notice.
School Wasn’t Exactly an Escape
You’d think she’d find some peace at school, right? Wrong.
Huda has talked about being bullied relentlessly. Because she is Palestinian-American, she dealt with some truly disgusting racism. Kids would push her into lockers and call her a "terrorist."
It gets darker.
She struggled with a severe eating disorder—bulimia—because a girl at school told her she wasn't "skinny enough" or "pretty enough" to be a model. She’s admitted to chewing food and spitting it into trash cans just to taste it without swallowing. That level of self-loathing doesn't just disappear because you get cast on a hit TV show.
The Secret Life of a Fitness Coach
Before the villa, Huda was hustling. She built a massive following—we're talking hundreds of thousands—on Instagram and TikTok (@hudabubbaaa) by being a personal trainer and online coach.
But there was a huge part of her life she kept off the "Main Feed."
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She’s a single mom to a daughter named Arleigh.
What’s wild is how she handled the pregnancy. Huda found out she was pregnant and kept it a total secret from everyone, including her own mother, for nearly four months. She didn't even know she was supposed to go to the doctor. She just... handled it. That solitary "I’ll do it myself" attitude is exactly why she struggled to trust anyone in the villa.
Why the "Villain" Label is Kinda Unfair
When she finally told Jeremiah she was a mom in episode three, and he gave that lukewarm, muted response? That wasn't just "villa drama" for her. That was a direct hit to the protective wall she’d been building since she was a kid.
She spent huda before love island years being told she wasn't enough, being bullied for her ethnicity, and protecting her daughter from a world she didn't trust. Then she gets to Fiji, and the public labels her "crazy" or "toxic."
Honestly, it’s a miracle she didn’t snap sooner.
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What We Can Learn From Her Journey
If you're looking for the "takeaway" here, it’s pretty simple: reality TV is a terrible place for unhealed trauma. Huda has since admitted that she probably shouldn't have been cast because the environment was such a massive trigger for her past.
Next Steps for You:
- Check the Source: If you’re following the drama, go watch her full interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast. It reframes everything she did on the show.
- Look Beyond the Edit: Next time a "villain" emerges on your favorite show, remember that the 24 years before the cameras started rolling usually explain the 30 days they spent in front of them.
- Support the Cause: Huda now uses her platform to advocate for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF). If you want to see the "real" her, that’s where she’s putting her energy now.