Articles by Janelle Griffith

Technology

Malala Yousafzai Opens Up About Secretly Dating Her Husband, from Having to Hide Her 'Sex Bomb' Dress to Telling Her Parents

Nearly four years after Malala Yousafzai married husband Asser Malik in an intimate ceremony in Birmingham, England, the world will have an up-close look at the origins of their love story in her new memoir, Finding My Way. Yousafzai, 28, one of the world's most famous advocates for girls' education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate, is opening up in an excerpt of her new memoir, out Oct. 21. In addition to chronicling her relationship with Malik, the book, her most personal yet, documents her time at Oxford University and coming into her own. In the excerpt published by Vogue, she recounted the early challenges of privately dating Malik, 35, while studying at Oxford University and being such a recognizable figure. "Asser's arrival vanquished the dark clouds that hung over the prospect of my third term at Oxford, but it wasn't exactly the carefree summer romance of rom-coms, as I worried a lot about getting caught," she wrote. Detailing one outing, she said that while taking a walk, she grabbed Malik's hand and "pulled him close," only to catch the eye of a nearby woman. "She broke into a wide smile of recognition and pulled out her phone to take a picture. I ran behind a hedge to hide, alarming both Asser and my security team," she wrote. Keeping their romance a secret from her parents at first also led to some inventive moments. As she wrote in the excerpt, she once showed up to a date with Malik in a traditional shalwar kameez that met her mother's approval. After they got to their table she excused herself for a minute, then changed into a sleeveless, form-fitting pink dress and heels. "When I returned to the table, Asser sat up straight and his mouth broke into a smile I hadn't seen before. He pulled out my chair and whispered, 'You're a sex bomb!' in my ear," she wrote. "I hid my face behind my dinner napkin, both delighted and bashful." When it came time to tell her parents, she first told her dad, whose support she could always rely on. "I like him, Dad. I like him…romantically," she recalled saying, before begging him not to tell her mom just yet. "I am not ready to have this fight with her yet." But, much to her disbelief, her father quickly called her mother to fill her in. "On the other end of the line, I heard my mom say, 'Absolutely not! Does he even speak Pashto? She must marry a Pashtun man!' " After their first meeting, the activist had to break the news to Malik that her parents "were worried." "They anticipated a scandal and said I should stop seeing him. I wasn't going to do that, but I hated the tension my relationship created with my parents," she wrote. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories By the end of the summer, she said that she asked Malik if they could try to "pause our feelings for now" until she finished her studies at Oxford. "I'm not sure feelings work that way," he said. "But, for you, I’m willing to try." Finding My Way will be released Oct. 21 via Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.