The Woman’s Own columnist has her say on frogs, witches and imperfections
WE ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL
It’s sad to hear that Dawn French thinks she has ‘flaws’
I had a dawning realisation today. And it’s this: that women who are naturally extremely beautiful always tell us how much they love embracing their flaws.
I’m always suspicious that they’ve spelt the word ‘flaws’ wrong and mean ‘floors’ instead. As in, they love their new shag pile or kitchen tiles or something…
The latest to this band of gorgeous girls saying that perfection is impossible is someone I’ve had a total girl crush on since we got locked in the loos of a private members’ club together back in the late 80s. It’s a long story, but suffice to say we bonded over the fact we not only shared an interesting predicament, but also a name. A not very common one at that.
I’m talking about the amazingly talented and very lovely Dawn French. After an amazing career of comedy, acting, writing and, by all accounts, being a rather fantastic mum to daughter Billie, 32, (who she shares with ex-husband Sir Lenny Henry), Dawn, 66, has a book out called, er, The Twat Files.
Writing in the book, Dawn reflected on the sudden end to her smash-hit BBC show, French and Saunders. The actor wrote and starred in the sketch show with best friend Jennifer Saunders for six series, but in 2004 the duo announced the end, shocking fans. The tipping point came after she filmed a sketch with pop star Anastacia, where the pair were dressed as cowgirls.
‘I had genuinely never felt so ugly,’ she reveals. ‘I’d often voluntarily, happily been “ugly” for hundreds of sketches. I’ve never minded what something looks like as long as it’s servicing the joke right. The mirror was clearly telling me why this was so painfully abhorrent. Because the joke was on me.’ Dawn admits she cried all the way home and announced the end of the show, with Jennifer’s support, soon after.
Now, as someone who has been in close quarters with my fellow Dawn, I can vouch, she has one of the most naturally beautiful faces I’ve ever seen. And with her new dark grey-coloured bob hairstyle she looks even better. You’d never know she was in her mid-60s. Which is why it’s a bit of a mystery that she says now she’s finally ‘embracing’ her flaws.
‘Nobody’s perfect, are they?’ she asks. ‘I don’t know why we try to pretend to be… We all know that we can’t achieve it, but we somehow try to live to be perfect and then we
