Sir David Jason has revealed that he has a 52-year-old daughter and a ten-year-old grandson who he wasn't aware of. The Only Fools and Horses star said that he was "delighted" to get to know his daughter Abi and her son, Charlie.
In a statement, he told the Mirror: "To say it was a surprise to find out I had a daughter from years ago is an understatement. However, on settling with the news, I am delighted that I am now able to get to know Abi and so we meet up when we can. My wife, Gill, and daughter, Sophie, have been very supportive and understanding and have embraced Abi and welcomed her and her young son into her now wider family."
David has two daughters, as he also shares Sophie, 22, with his wife, Gill Hinchcliffe. David has previously opened up about becoming a dad at an older age, telling The Telegraph: "I suppose the thing that you miss, perhaps, is being able to do all the things a younger father would do with their child.
"But Sophie is lovely – when she was a baby and a small child, she was so funny, it was sheer delight. I still call her 'the warf', because she loved Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but she couldn't say the 'D'. Even now, I'll say, 'Where's the warfling?', and my wife will say, 'Oh, she's gone out.'"
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David and Gill, who have been married since 2005, welcomed Sophie in 2001 after meeting on a TV set back in 1995. "I first set eyes on Gill, a floor assistant at [a TV studio] in Leeds, when she was sent to meet me in the studio car park," he told the Guardian. "She was 20 years younger, we were living in different parts of the country… Yet work kept bringing us together and fondness turned to love. Our daughter, Sophie Mae, was born in March 2001. When she was handed to me, the room seemed suddenly very still."
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