Ellie Simmonds, a Strictly Come Dancing judge and Paralympian, has revealed that she was adopted when she was three months old.
The 28-year-old has now been reunited with her real mother after discovering she was adopted at the age of 10 days.
In a new ITV documentary, the Paralympic gold medalist swimmer, who appeared on Strictly with Nikita Kuzmin, discusses her search to discover her real mother.
Ellie, who was born with achondroplasia, a kind of dwarfism, sadly finds that her mom wishes she had died at birth, and told physicians that she feared Ellie would be viewed as ‘evil’.
However, following an emotional five-hour meeting for the first time, the couple is now mending their relationship.
‘Until now, it’s never emotionally affected me, it never made me feel rejected or ask why do my birth parents not want me,’ she says in the documentary, in quotes obtained by the Mirror.
‘I’ve been so focussed on the future and never thought about it.’
‘One of the reasons for being given up for adoption is dwarfism and maybe it can be a factor of why my personality is like it is, because of that rejection at the start,’ she continues.
Ellie examines hospital documents confirming her achondroplasia while on her search to find her biological parents.
The form tells her birth mother that her daughter would have a ‘large skull and depressed nasal bridge’ and that children with the condition ‘tend to be muscular and acrobatic, which is perhaps the reason for them traditionally being involved in the circus and other forms of theatre’.
Ellie says: ‘Can you imagine reading that and thinking, “That’s my child”? In a way, I understand, when you don’t know anything about the disability and you get this. You’re going to be scared.’
According to the social worker report, Ellie’s biological mother “feels terribly bad about Eleanor’s condition and wishes she had an abortion or that Eleanor had died.”
In the documentary, Ellie, who also contacts the family of her late foster mother, who saw her on television and in sports and recognised her as the Ellie she assisted in raising, reads an emotional letter from her biological mother.
It says: ‘I’ve suffered with guilt and self-hatred for not being strong enough to cope. I cannot express the happiness I feel to know your parents and siblings have provided you with such a loving environment, that you’re so happy. You’ve achieved so much.’
After the pair met for the first time, Ellie says: ‘It was amazing. I didn’t realise the time was passing by.’
She adds: ‘What touched my heart was she said she thinks about me every day, and she still sees me as her daughter.
‘It’s helped with finding out who I am, looking at someone who birthed me, the nature I’m from, it makes you a bit more whole.
‘Questions I’ve carried for years have been answered. I’m proud of my life and I love my family, and maybe that family just got a bit bigger.’
Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family airs on ITV1 on Thursday, July 6 at 9pm.
