PARALYMPICS HERO ELLIE TELLS OF EMOTIONAL JOURNEY TO FORGE A CONNECTION

FORMER Strictly star Ellie Simmonds has opened up about the emotional “journey” of establishing contact with her birth mother, revealing that she “cried so much” during the process.

- By MATT DAVIES News Reporter

Ellie, a celebrated Paralympian with five gold medals to her name, has given an intimate look into her initial heart-wrenching interactions with her biological mother.

The Strictly Come Dancing alum, who spent her childhood in Walsall and lives with achondroplasia, a genetic bone growth condition causing dwarfism, was put up for adoption at just ten days old.

Now 30, Ellie has since forged a connection with her birth mother, starting with letters and eventually meeting face-to-face, but the experience of writing brought her to tears.

In a candid interview with the Guardian in 2023, she described how the situation made her “really emotional” saying: “Going through this whole journey, I cried so much.”

Ellie's status as a celebrity added an extra layer of complexity.

She didn’t want her birth mum to “get to know” her simply because she was famous; she wished to be seen “as a person.”