As one of Britain’s most loved comedians, Dawn French is not shy about finding humor when candidly sharing her life.
But when it comes to her adopted daughter Billie, whom she fiercely protects, French is serious in keeping her free from the celebrity spotlight, allowing her privacy.
When French and her ex-husband Lenny Henry adopted Billie–she was two weeks old at the time–the pair captured the moment with a special photo, that on her 30th birthday, French shared on Instagram.
Squishing her face into the adorable toddler’s cheeks in an extreme close-up, French captioned the photo, “This lil wriggler is 30yrs old today. My extraordinary ray. My greatest challenge & greatest blessing. Happy Birthday beautiful girl.”
And the same day, on Twitter, she posted a photo of her smiling face, against the back of Billie’s head, with a similar message.
The 65-year-old, known for her leading role as Geraldine in the BBC sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, became an international funny woman since first appearing in front of audiences with her best friend and comedy partner, Jennifer Saunders in the 1980s. After the hilarious pair starred together in shows like The Comic Strip (1982), Girls on Top (1985 to 1986) and then Happy Families in 1985, the duo was given their own show, French & Saunders, which ran from 1987 to 2007.
Despite the hectic work schedules of both French and her equally famous actor husband Henry, they wanted a family. According to Hello! the pair was struggling to conceive a child naturally, and after a few miscarriages, they adopted little Billie in 1991.
“I had grief for a while. I did have miscarriages, so I’ve had grief about that as well. But the minute Billie arrived that was it for me. She fills everything I needed to be as a mother,” she said.
Balancing her career with being a mom was difficult for French, who said she was filled with angst for having to be apart from her then young daughter. In an interview with the Independent, she said, “I can’t bear to be away from her too much…It was like my heart would break.” She continued, “I need to know what she’s done nearly all day, and I’m not interested in anyone else like that. I want to know what she feels about everything, what she’s seen, what she’s experienced, how she’s changing. She’s very mercurial, and I’m fascinated by how she perceives things. I didn’t know I would be quite as obsessional.”
After 25 “happy” years together, French and Henry had a highly publicized divorce in 2010, and in 2019, the stage and screen star married businessman Mark Bignall. While Bignall became stepfather to Billie, French became the stepmother to his two children, Lily and Ollie, but she reveals that Billie is her top priority. French said, “I’ve got a daughter who bought a T-shirt for herself when she was about eight that said, ‘I’m an only child, let’s keep it that way.’”
Sharing a close bond with her daughter, who’s now 32, French famously keeps her daughter out of the spotlight but has spoken about their once turbulent relationship.
Explaining her challenges with motherhood, The Death on the Nile star said in an interview, “I haven’t got a kid who wants to read with me and have adventures with me, I’ve got a different kind of kid who’s a different kind of set of challenges and that’s been my lesson. Our relationship exists in a bizarre kind of process of peacetime, small battles, war. The peacetime is much more than the other two energies, but we have our wars.”
In 2015, when Billie moved from her mother’s Cornwall home, just 12 miles away, French joked there “would be murder” if Billie stayed. Referring to her daughter as her “greatest achievement,” French said, “If the love wasn’t there I don’t know how we’d survive all this other stuff.”
But there’s only so much a loving parent can do to protect their children. For Billie, despite her famous parents’ efforts in keeping her life private, she had the spotlight turned on her.
In 2019, Billie appeared in court, her stepfather at her side, to face charges for harassing her ex-boyfriend, Samuel King.
According to BBC, the court heard that after King ended the relationship, Henry barraged him with “manipulative and some threatening” messages–185 of them–some sent from an email address she created, using the name of her comedian father.
In 2020, at her sentencing, her lawyer Jo Martin said that her adoption by Sir Lenny and Dawn French forced her into publicity and attention, “even though she has never sought fame or notoriety thrust upon her.”
Failing to sympathize with her plight of unwanted fame, the judge sentenced the then 28-year-old to eight months in jail, and a five-year restraining order, banning her from any contact with her ex.
It’s really nice to see that Dawn French, Mark Bignall and Lenny Henry are so protective and supportive. No doubt growing up with famous parents has its challenges and we hope the trio of parents can help her in getting back on track!
