All About Hannah Waddingham’s Daughter, Who She Describes as Her ‘Tiny Little Best Friend’

Hannah Waddingham attends the 2026 Albies on October 9, 2026.Credit: Getty ImagesTHE GIST

Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham welcomed her daughter in 2014.

While keeping her out of the spotlight, the actress has spoken about her journey with fertility and their close bond.

Waddingham has also been candid about her daughter’s autoimmune disorder, which she was diagnosed with at age 3.

While Ted Lasso might’ve brought Hannah Waddingham’s talent and charisma to audiences worldwide, the actress had been a mainstay in British media for years. After training at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, Waddingham built a career spanning over two decades across West End theater, TV, and film.

But her proudest title to date is becoming a mom. “Without a doubt, my greatest achievement is bringing my magnificent daughter into the world,” she told Glamour UK in 2023.

Waddingham welcomed her daughter in 2014, and has kept her out of the spotlight, only sharing minor details about her life and their close bond over the years. “She is literally by a million miles my greatest achievement and my my little buddy,” Waddingham, who describes herself as a single mom, told Today in 2023. “I’ve literally carved out a tiny little best friend.”

Below, find out everything Waddingham has said about her now 12-year-old daughter, including her first TV appearance.

Waddingham knew she wanted to become a mom.

Hannah WaddinghamCredit: Kristina Bumphrey / Variety via Getty Images

Speaking to Today in 2023, Waddingham remembered the moment she decided to become a mom. It all happened when she was backstage waiting to go onstage for The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium theater in 2011.

“I was a bit like, ‘Oh my God, I want a child,’” she recalled. “It literally, it was like a wave that hit me.” After the realization, she could let the idea go. “I knew that I was desperate to have one little girly,” she said.

Waddingham took her home on her 40th birthday.

Once the realization hit, Waddingham became adamant about getting pregnant. At the time, she was 38 or 39 years old, and a doctor had told her that she would not be able to get pregnant. Frustrated with her western doctor, she took a holistic approach, turning to acupuncture and Reiki.

By her 40th birthday, she brought her daughter home. “I took my baby daughter home from the hospital on my 40th birthday,” she remembered to Glamour UK. “When I was told I couldn’t have children, I realised how precious it is to be blessed with a child. I was lucky, and I managed to conceive naturally.”

She has an autoimmune disorder.Hannah Waddingham and her daughter.Credit: @hannah_waddingham

When her daughter was just 3 years old, she got very ill and was eventually diagnosed with Henoch-Schönlein purpura, or HSP, a painful autoimmune disorder that causes inflammation and bleeding in the small blood vessels, resulting in rashes and sore joints.

“I can talk about it now but I couldn’t for a very long time,” Waddingham told People in March 2023. “She was in the hospital for a while with them not knowing what it was.”

At the time, she considered stepping away from acting to be in London to be close to her daughter. That’s when Ted Lasso, which was filmed in Richmond, UK, came along. “In that moment, I just thought, ‘please bring me this role,’” Waddingham said after the audition. After learning she landed it, “I had to get off the phone and mop up my face in my car knowing that my life had just changed.”

At the time, Waddingham also revealed her daughter was doing “much better now, so that’s the greatest.”

She appeared in Waddingham’s Christmas special.

Despite living life away from the spotlight, Waddingham’s daughter made a short cameo in her 2023 Christmas special, titled Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas. In the appearance, Waddingham checks in with her daughter before taking the stage at the London Coliseum.

“Mommy, break a leg, but don’t actually because you’d really hurt yourself,” she said, with her back facing the camera. “Thanks for that, kiddo,” Waddingham responded, before giving her a kiss and heading to the stage.

Speaking to Late Night with Seth Meyers at the time, Waddingham also revealed that her daughter requested someone for the special. “I wanted to give her the opportunity to choose one of the guests for my special,” she explained, per Entertainment Weekly. “Literally, before I finished my sentence, she went, ‘LESLIE ODOM JR., MUMMY!’” Odom appeared in the show alongside Jason Sudeikis, Nick Mohammed, Phil Dunster, James Lance, Juno Temple, Brendan Hunt, Kola Bokinni, and Billy Harris.

She’s a big Harry Styles fan.

In January 2024, Waddingham made listeners chuckle when she spoke about a recent interaction with her daughter. “She said, ‘Mummy, we were talking at school about who inspires us, and I said, ‘Harry Styles and you,’ ” Waddingham told BBC Radio 2. “And I went, ‘What?! Me?’ I was slightly gutted about being second billing.”

She made her mom’s bag for the 2024 Actor Awards.

Hannah WaddinghamCredit: Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images

At the 2024 Actor Awards, held on February 24, 2024, Waddingham wore a gorgeous red Tony Ward Couture gown, paired with a cardboard clutch bag designed by her daughter. It was colored with coloring pencils and had the word “epic” written across it.

“My daughter wanted to contribute, so she’s made me a bag,” Waddingham said on Netflix’s red carpet preshow, per People. “This is all great, but [being is a mom] is the most important.”

on InStyle

Source: Entertainment