Ellie Simmonds shocked after discovering she was branded 'evil' before adoption

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Ellie Simmonds has spoken of her shock after learning she was branded ‘evil’ and ‘stupid’ in legal documents given to her birth mother.

The Paralympic gold-medal winning swimmer, who also starred on the last season of Strictly with Nikita Kuzmin, only recently revealed she was adopted at just three-months-old.

Born in Walsall, Ellie, 28, began swimming when she was five years old, and was just 13 when she won two gold medals for Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing.

Ellie, who has achondroplasia, is now retired, and recently turned her focus to finding her birth family, a journey that has been captured by cameras for the documentary Finding My Secret Family.

During the ITVX show, Ellie was given the information sheet her birth mother recieved before she was born.

The document said that children with dwarfism ‘tend to be muscular and acrobatic, which is perhaps the reason for them traditionally being involved in the circus and other forms of theatre’.

It continued: ‘Children have to deal with being stared at and laughed at by other children. Indeed, there are those with normal height who equate short stature with evil and stupidity.’

Speaking about the document on Thursday’s BBC Breakfast, a shocked Ellie remarked those horrific words where used only 28 years ago, adding: ‘That wasn’t that long ago.’

‘The language that was used, I’ve never had a child so I don’t know what it’s like but I’m sure parents are vulnerable. You’ve just gone through the whole birth situation, you’re emotional and you get given this letter about your child and you have visions about what they’re going to be like.

While it is not shown on screen in the documentary, Ellie went on to meet her birth mother, whom she explained that she spent five hours speaking to when discussing the documentary on This Morning on Wednesday.

‘I was so nervous, and we were supposed to meet and I got a migraine and had to cancel, but the second time I got to meet her, but that first moment we just embraced and hugged and it was the most amazing feeling,’ she said.

She went on to say that while she initially only wanted to spend 15 minutes chatting, that blew out when the conversation started flowing.

Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family is available to stream on ITVX.

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