What happened when Malala Yousafzai revealed her relationship with Asser Malik to her parents? Nobel Prize laureate makes big revelations about her marriage in her memoir; check here

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate, opened up about her love story nearly four years after she married husband Asser Malik in an intimate ceremony in Birmingham, England. In her new memoir, Finding My Way, releasing on October 21, 2025, Malala, one of the world's most famous advocates for girls' education, revealed massive details about her relationship with Malik.

In the excerpt published by Vogue, she recalled the initial challenges of privately dating Malik, 35, while studying at Oxford University and being 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, as quoted by PEOPLE.

While narrating one outing with her husband in the book, Malala said that while taking a walk, she grabbed Malik's hand and "pulled him close." She stated that the aim of doing this was 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.

How did Malala reveal her love for her husband, Asser Malik, to her parents

Malala kept her love life a secret from her parents during the initial years. According to the excerpt of her memoir, she revealed an incident when she once showed up on a date with Malik in a traditional shalwar kameez. After they got to their table, she excused herself and changed into a sleeveless, form-fitting pink dress and heels, according to PEOPLE.

"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."

Talking about how she finally told her parents about her relationship, she said that she told her father first, stating that she could always rely on his support. "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 all her requests went in vain as her father 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!'"

Following their first meeting, Malala 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. Finding My Way will be released via Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.