Dawn French on her dramatic weight loss - and the pressure on young girls like her daughter Billie to be thin
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Dawn French has spoken for the first time about her dramatic weight loss – and her fears about the pressure on girls, like her 20-year-old daughter Billie, to be thin.
In an exclusive interview for the Mirror, she revealed that she had lost seven and a half stones - because "I want to be there for my kid" - by eating less and exercising more.
But she said she had put back on a stone because "I have more treats now!"
She said: "When you're over 50 you have to pay attention to your health a bit. I want to be there for my kid.
"I have quite a lot of exciting adventures that I want to do, and I had just ballooned a bit more than I wanted to. I've never disliked myself, and my weight has had nothing to do with my self-esteem. I still refuse to dislike my old body."
But Dawn said she was concerned about her daughter Billie, who she adopted with her ex, comedian Lenny Henry.
"She is a 20-year-old girl and like all 20-year-old girls that I've ever met she has all sorts of feelings about her body as I did when I was 20, but no more than any other kid," Dawn said.
"I listen to her and her friends all the time sitting round our kitchen table and they talk of little else than what they look like and stuff, which is a shame.
"Jen (her comedy partner Jennifer Saunders) and I were talking about this the other day - how funny it was that at that age we thought we were hideous monsters.
"But we look at pictures of ourselves now from back then and we weren't hideous monsters at all. It's not just that we're older now - we actually were lovely young girls just as they are lovely young women.
"You just don't know that when you're going through it, that's the shame. But it' s definitely worse for girls today - because size zero has happened.
I can't begin to understand that. Why would anyone want to be called a size zero or even aspire to being a zero?
"But then I've never been in the world of ordinary dress sizes - and I'm still not. I've always been on the edges of that, since I was tiny.
"Tiny in age, I mean. I've never been tiny tiny. It's just shocking and upsetting that my daughter and her friends feel pressure to be much thinner than they should be.
"Luckily Billie hasn't suffered from any eating disorders, but some of her chums have and it destroys families.
"For me, whatever age or size I've been, I have rather liked myself."
• Dawn was speaking to celebrate the mums of some of our biggest Olympic stars. You can watch their video here.
For sensible advice on losing weight, check out Shape Solutions.
Celebrities who adopt
- Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt<p> Jolie adopted her first child, Maddox Chivan Thornton Jolie in 2001, with then husband, Billy Bob Thornton. She then adopted her second child, Zahara Marley Jolie, in 2005. Both children were also adopted by Brad Pitt.</p>
- Elton John and David Furnish<p> Elton John and husband David Furnish adopted their son, Zachary, on Christmas Day 2010.</p>
- Hugh Jackman and Deborra Lee-Furness<p> Actor Hugh jackman and actress wife Deborra Lee-Furness adopted a boy named Oscar in 2000, then in 2005 adopted for a second time, a girl named Ava.</p>
- Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley<p> Actress Katherine Heigl and husband, Josh Kelley adopted a special needs baby girl from South Korea in 2009.</p>
- Madonna<p> Madonna adopted son David in 2006, and then went on to adopt Mercy James in 2009.</p> <p> </p>
- Meg Ryan<p> In 2006, months after filing for adoption, Meg Ryan brought her baby girl home to Los Angeles from China. Initially naming her daughter Charlotte, Meg decided the name didn't suit her daughter's personality, so decided to change it to Daisy.</p>
- Michelle Pfeiffer<p> Michelle Pfeiffer adopted daughter Claudia Rose in 1993 when she was a baby.</p>
- Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne<p> In 2002 Sharon and husband Ozzy adopted 16-year-old Robert Marcato after his mum, and close friend of Sharon's, died of colon cancer.</p>
- Sharon Stone<p> Actress Sharon Stone and now ex-husband Phil Bronstein adopted a baby boy named Roan in 2000. Ten years later, the actress went on to adopt two more boys on her own - Laird, 4, arrived in May 2005, and Quinn, 3, a year later.</p>
- Sheryl Crowe<p> In 2007, Sheryl Crowe adopted a two-week-old boy named Wyatt. Wyatt gained a sibling in 2010 when Sheryl adopted a second boy, 9-week-old Levi.</p> <p> </p>
- Sinitta Renet Malone<p> Sinitta already mother to five-year-old daughter Magdalena and son Zac, three, who she adopted in 2009, has revealed plans to adopt her third child from the same birth mother.</p> <div style="border: medium none ; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> </div>
- Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman<p> Tom and Nicole adopted Isabella Jane in 1992, and Connor Anthony in 1995, when they were babies.</p>
- Charlize Theron<p> Hollywood star <a href="http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2012/03/14/charlize-theron-adopts-baby-boy-jackson/" target="_blank">Charlize adopted baby boy, Jackson in March 2012</a>. In a statement released to Associated Press, Charlize's publicist said the actress "is a proud mom of a healthy baby boy named Jackson". She's been keeping mum on pretty much everything else surrounding the adoption.</p>
- David Tennant<p> Doctor Who star David announced he had adopted wife Georgia's ten-year-old son, Tyler, shortly after the couple welcomed their first baby together, Olive. <a href="http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2012/03/22/david-tennant-adopts-wife-georgia-moffett-10-year-old-son-tyler/" target="_blank">David broke the news</a> on the Christian O'Connell Absolute Radio breakfast show, saying: "My baby is almost a year old and I adopted my wife's boy last year as well so I became a father twice in six months - that's got to be something of a record, hasn't it?"</p>
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