Ellie Simmonds breaks down in tears writing a letter to her birth mother in her new documentary.
The ex ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ star got emotional during the search for her biological mother - who gave her daughter up for adoption when she was just days old, when she was born with a form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia - as she opted to pen her a handwritten note to tell all about her “incredible life”.
According to MailOnline, in the Channel 4 programme ‘Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Family’, which airs on Thursday night (06.07.23), the 28-year-old Paralympian says: “I'm going to tell her I've always known I was adopted from the start. I'm going to say I had photos of them, that I lived an incredible life.
These are all bullet points. This is a big thing, the first letter. I'm going to tell her when I read the adoption notes it says you love being outdoors and are into horses and it's funny because I love them.
“I know from the photos I have you had curly hair, do you still have curly hair? I do, it's lovely but it's hard to manage.
“I'm going to say I'm definitely not angry. I hope you understand that. I hope I can get to know you and find out about you. It seems like we have the same personality, again it might have changed now.”
Ellie then begins to well up with tears, before adding: “I don’t know why I’m crying.”
The gold medallist explains during the programme that her “great” adoptive family - which include her parents Val and Steve and her older four siblings Georgina, Steven, Katie and Pauline - were convinced she could've ended up in “jail” if she had been left to her "own free will".
Ellie says: “There wasn't that one time I knew I was adopted, it was just something I always knew. I've got such a great family. If I wasn't adopted to them, who would I be?
“My mum always says if I wasn’t adopted to them, I’d probably be naughty because I channelled my determination and competitiveness through swimming and sport. If I was left to my own free will, I could be in jail. My mum says that.”
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