Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds will ask if she “should have children” in a new ITV documentary.
The 30-year-old retired swimmer, who competed on Strictly Come Dancing and was part of the Channel 4 presenting team who covered the 2024 Paralympics last year, was born with a form of dwarfism named achondroplasia.
She said that she was motivated to front the upcoming programme Ellie Simmonds: Should I Have Children?, after meeting her birth mother in a 2023 ITV documentary.
Simmonds said: “Now having the understanding of what my birth mother and so many others experienced 30 years ago when it came to disability and pregnancy, I want to see how things have changed for parents today.
“I also want to challenge some of the perceptions that exist today about children born with disabilities.
“It’s a deeply personal subject to me, and I’m just so grateful to all those who have let me embark on what are deeply personal and emotional journeys of their own.”
The gold medallist will explore the “emotionally fraught decisions she would, and expectant parents do, face when they are told that their child may be born with a disability”.
It will also see her question “should I have children and what would that look like?”, and if she feels “fully prepared to navigate a pregnancy? And what would it mean for a child of hers to be born disabled or non-disabled?”
Jo Clinton-Davis, controller of Factual ITV, said: “We’re so pleased that Ellie is making this insightful and deeply personal film for us.
“Packed with emotional human narratives and layered with potent dilemmas, this is a film that will shed new light on a significant story of our times with the power both to move us and make us all think: ‘What do we feel? What would we do?’”
Through the documentary she will visit one of the UK’s leading Foetal Medicine Units (FCU), where skilled specialist doctors treat unborn babies that have complications, and speak with families that are coming to terms with their children having a a prenatal diagnosis of disability.
Simmonds will “question whether the representation of people like herself in the public eye has brought down barriers”, and also speak to doctors, geneticists, cardiologists, midwives and counsellors who guide these families.
Last year, she took home the best single Bafta documentary for the ITV film Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family.
Executive producer Colleen Flynn, who worked on Simmonds’ previous ITV documentary, from Flicker Productions said: “Ellie has an unique ability to tackle the most nuanced subjects with heart and understanding. And this film is no different.
“As Ellie delicately navigates the emotionally complex decisions many parents across the country are facing when they are told they are having a baby that will likely be disabled.”
Simmonds’ BBC documentary Ellie Simmonds: A World Without Dwarfism? previously won her the breakthrough presenter gong at the 2023 Edinburgh TV Awards.
She won the first two of her five Paralympic gold medals in Beijing in 2008 before retiring after Tokyo 2020.
Ellie Simmonds: Should I Have Children? will air on ITV and ITVX later this year.
