SHE was 46 when finally catapulted to stardom but Ted Lasso actress Hannah Waddingham says finding fame later in life was the best thing that happened to her.
Now 49, Hannah, who made her name in three series of the hit Apple TV+ comedy drama show since it started in 2020, feels years of knockbacks gave her the inner confidence to succeed — and now she is unstoppable.
She says: “It really does feel more special. You know, I’ll be 50 and can celebrate that and the fact that I’ve gone into everything with a full heart and given 100 per cent to it.
“And I’m glad that it didn’t happen when I was 20, 25, 30, because I know who I am. I don’t apologise for who I am.”
In the show Hannah plays Rebecca Welton, owner of a fictional struggling Premier League football side AFC Richmond, who hires American football coach Ted Lasso to run her struggling team.
But while Hannah’s fame as the ballsy footie boss has inspired women the world over, her eight-year-old daughter Kitty is still more impressed by pop heart-throb Harry Styles.
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Hannah, a single parent to Kitty after splitting with her Italian hotelier partner Gianluca Cugnetto in 2022 after a decade together, says: “She said, ‘Mummy, we were talking at school about who inspires us and I said Harry Styles . . . and you’.
“I went, ‘What, me?!’ Joking. I mean, I was slightly gutted about getting second billing.”
Mum guilt
But Hannah was nonetheless made up to be mentioned despite her long hours away from home while filming.
She told Michelle Visage’s BBC podcast Rule Breakers: “I said, ‘Baby girl, you have made my day, my week, my month and my year, because you know Mummy struggles being away from you.’
