She’s undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years, shedding eight stone and completely overhauling her lifestyle – and now Dawn French is said to be happier than ever.
The star, 61, well known for her lead role in sitcom Vicar of Dibley, has had a turbulent few years since leaving the show in 2007. She was left heartbroken when she divorced her former husband Sir Lenny Henry after 25 years of marriage in 2010, before finding love again with charity worker Mark Bignell, who she married in 2013.
However her biggest change came in 2017 when she left fans stunned with her incredible weight loss, having finally decided to ditch the pounds to be able to undergo keyhole surgery for a hysterectomy.
She’s been showing off her new figure in the limelight ever since, and friends now say she’s far happier than before.
According to The Sun, a friend of Dawn’s told Woman magazine: “Dawn is on the other end of the scale now – properly happy… She’s content in her marriage and work-wise she is making Glass Houses.”
Dawn herself has previously spoken about how her weight loss has changed her life, reportedly saying: “I’m at a very happy part of my life now. I take vitamins, I exercise, I live in Cornwall – life is good in many ways and I think it shows.”
She first decided to focus on losing weight in 2014, Hello magazine reports, after doctors warned her she’d only be able to have keyhole surgery instead of open surgery if she lost some weight.
She reportedly told an audience during her 30 Million Minutes tour: “When I was due to have my hysterectomy the doctor told me that if I could lose some weight before the op, they would be able to do it via keyhole, and I would recover in three weeks or so. Otherwise it would be big open surgery, and three months to recover. So, I set about dropping a few stone.
“No magic wand, just tiny, joyless low-cal eating and lots more walking for weeks and weeks. It was grim. I lost seven-and-a-half stone. I could have the keyhole surgery. Great. That’s all it was, practical.”
The same year that Dawn revealed her amazing weight loss for the first time, she admitted she was left “broken” by her divorce from Henry seven years earlier.
Talking to The Mirror, French said she’s now “enjoying the place [she’s] in” in her Autumn years.
“I have mended myself,” she told the news outlet at the time. “I have seen what happens if you stay broken. When I was single I found my new self. But I think it is OK to grieve over a relationship.”