Dawn French might be one of the nation's best-loved comedians, but when it comes to her family life she prefers to keep it low-key.
Fans were delighted, therefore, when she shared a very rare snapshot of her daughter Billie on Twitter this week – and it was such a sweet picture.
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The image is a close-up of Billie’s mouth; she is wearing a hot pink lipstick and has painted a red love heart over the top. In her caption, the 63-year-old proudly wrote: "Daughter sent me love lips #heartburst."
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Billie is Dawn's only child from her marriage to Lenny Henry. The former couple, who were married from 1984 until 2010, adopted her when she was just two weeks old following a long struggle with infertility.
Dawn shared the sweet snapshot of Billie's love heart lips
During an appearance on Fearne Cotton's Happy Place podcast, Dawn spoke candidly about their decision to adopt.
"I knew I wanted to definitely be a mother that was a very strong instinct," she shared. "Then what happened was my body wouldn't let me be a mother and everything kept failing all the time for all sorts of reasons.
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"We had to make a big decision, to put aside IVF and go for adoption."
Dawn and ex-husband Lenny adopted Billie when she was a baby
Dawn – who has been married to charity executive Mark Bignell since 2013 - went on to describe her daughter as "the greatest achievement" of her life, but admitted they have their ups and downs.
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"Our relationship exists in a bizarre kind of process of peacetime, small battles, war," she previously stated. "The peacetime is much more than the other two energies, but we have our wars."
The star on the set of the Vicar of Dibley with her young daughter
She spoke further about their bond in an interview with HELLO! in October last year.
"My biggest test and my biggest joy," she said of Billie. "But it is unbreakable.
"We have the same amount of mother/daughter friction that any mum and daughter have, it's no more or less. But I've learnt a lot about her. And she's learnt a lot about me."
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