When the fraudulent civil case turned my world upside down, I became the villain in someone else’s story, and this time my fight for justice was rewarded with punishment and every penny stolen from my bank account. I was jailed, threatened, and left with one impossible choice: stay and be destroyed, or risk everything for freedom. In this episode, I share the truth about my final days in Dubai, the moment I realised no one was coming to save me, and the daring journey that took me across the border, leaving behind my business, my home, and the life I’d built from scratch. I happily paid that price to protect my innocence. 

The thing about con artists is… they don’t show up looking like villains. They show up looking like saviours. They speak your language, they mirror your dreams, they promise you the world and fatally - it’s all too easy to believe them.

This episode isn’t about one man. It’s about the pattern. About how people with fraudulent intentions use love bombing, grandiose claims, and smoke-and-mirrors deals to lure women in: financially, emotionally, psychologically. And how easy it is to fall for it when you’re hungry for opportunity, or even just hungry to be seen.

I’ll share how I was approached in my two-year old business after seeking a cash injection, how the glittering promises unravelled, and what I learned about trust, power, and how it’s impossible to protect yourself as a businesswoman in the UAE.

 The country is simply biased against female entrepreneurs, and if you’re up against a man, you don’t stand a chance.

What’s it really like to be on The Apprentice UK? In this episode, I answer your burning questions, spill some behind-the-scenes secrets, and share the highs and lows of sudden fame. But fame has a dark side, too: gossip columns, fake stories, and two rumours damaging enough they pushed me to go public with my own experience of sexual assault - something I’d been protected by with worldwide anonymity. This is the unfiltered truth about what happens when your life becomes a headline and you go from boardroom potential to tabloid obsession (yikes.) 

Growing up with narcissistic parents means inheriting a distorted reflection of yourself—one that conditions you to believe you’re never enough, never loveable, never worthy. In this episode, I discuss how that conditioning took root, how it bled into every part of my life, and how I began the long process of unlearning worthlessness. Listen to reclaim your voice, rewrite your patterns, and find your value within instead of seeking external validation.

Listen until the end for a journaling exercise to rewrite your programming (write down the 5 things mentioned and challenge each one).

Comment if you suffered a narcissistic parent and want to improve your self-worth!

 Listen to Say It Louder Podcast on Spotify & Apple here. Waitlist for my memoir (out Oct 13th) here. Connect with me:  Instagram: @selinawatermansmith_TikTok: @selina_w_smith 

The battle ended with a conviction - but not before I was nearly detained again. Threatened with being locked in a mental institution, I fought a dual battle for justice and my sanity. In this episode, I share how I clawed my way back from the edge, reclaimed fragments of my life, and began to stitch myself back together. I’ll also show you how dark humour can be a literal life saver. 

In the courtroom, survival took on a new meaning. Coming face to face with my attackers, hearing the details of the kidnapping in shocking detail and enduring the harassment from their families to drop the case. Navigating the terrifying Dubai legal system solo, I discovered that seeking justice was its own kind of battle. This is what happens when you’re compelled to stand, speak, and fight when the odds are stacked against you.

What happens when speaking the truth makes you the target? In this episode, I uncover how my search for justice - not just for me, but for other women too - was met with retaliation. Instead of focusing on the attackers, the men in power fabricated a charge against me, twisting the system to silence my voice and push me to back down. I made a decision to forge ahead with the criminal case despite knowing that I could be arrested and jailed at any time. There were scores of other victims that never got their day in court. If speaking the truth meant going to jail then so be it. This is the story of how survival itself became my crime.

In 2012, my life was turned upside down when I was kidnapped and gang raped in Dubai — and then treated like the criminal. In this raw, unfiltered first episode of Say It Louder, I share the truth about what really happened, how the system failed me, and why I now speak openly about the darkest chapter of my life.

Trigger warning: This episode contains discussions of sexual assault, kidnapping, and abuse.