My search for ANSWERS

ELLIE SIMMONDS opens up about her adoption story

- NATASHA HOLT

ELLIE SIMMONDS: FINDING MY SECRET FAMILY

NEW THURSDAY, 9PM, ITV1 FACTUAL

With her sunny disposition and steely determination, swimming superstar Ellie Simmonds gained a new legion of fans when she took to the floor in last year’s series of BBC1’s sequinned spectacle Strictly Come Dancing.

But the resulting attention and press interviews, with constant questions delving into her personal life, made the five-time Paralympic gold-medallist consider a part of her past she’d never explored or spoken publicly about before – her adoption.

‘People don’t know anything about me being adopted,’ says the 28-year-old, who shares her story this week in a one-off documentary for ITV1, Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family. 

‘My parents are my parents, but I’ve also got birth parents. I’ve got a family who I don’t know who they are. Who am I?’

JOURNEY INTO THE PAST