David Jason discovered secret daughter after 50 years thanks to subtle face clue
Sir David Jason had the biggest shock of his life when he discovered he'd secretly been father to a second daughter for 50 years.
The 83-year-old, who became a national treasure thanks to his iconic role as Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses, learned last year he was indeed a father-of-two, and also a grandad. The legendary TV star, along with his wife Lady Gill White, 62, and 22-year-old daughter Sophie, have welcomed their new family members in with open arms.
He has been making up for lost time with 52-year-old daughter Abi - born in 1970 after her actor mum Jennifer Hill had a brief relationship with him – and her son, 10-year-old Charlie. Back on screens this evening, Sir David joins The Repair Shop's Jay Blades for their new spin-off series David & Jay's Touring Toolshed.
They meet up with fellow "tinkerers" around the country to find out what they've been making, recycling and engineering in their workshops. It is a pastime he shares with Charlie, with the duo spending time in his workshop together, working on model rockets.
Here, we take a look at how the discovery came about after a series of clues before Sir David agreed to take a paternity test...
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David Jason and his newly found daughter Abi Harris (Mirror Pictures)Abi started to suspect that David was her biological father after hearing about his time with her mum, Jennifer, and realising she had the same shaped nose as him. Last year, David told the Mirror: "To say it was a surprise to find out I had a daughter from years ago is an understatement.
"However, on settling with the news, I am delighted that I am now able to get to know Abi and so we meet up when we can. My wife, Gill, and daughter, Sophie, have been very supportive and understanding and have embraced Abi and welcomed her and her young son into her now wider family."
Abi, who is also an actor and Charlie even spent some of the festive period with Sir David at his home in Ellesborough, Bucks. They played board games and the youngster was given a John Lewis Build Your Own Electronics Set as a Christmas present by him.
A source close to the family said: "David's very sanguine and accepting. It seems like an impossible task for everyone, you can't make up for lost time. That's just a regret everyone has to carry.
"But what they can do is make the most of their relationships moving forward, and that's exciting. It's early days, but they are meeting up when they can during holidays.
"They want to become closer until things feel even more open and relaxed. And now there are two new sisters who want to get to know each other, too." Friends revealed Abi, who lives in Brighton, has since developed a stronger sense of identity, after spending years wondering about her roots.
David Jason and Gill Hinchliffe with their baby daughter April 2001
Sir David Jason with his wife Gill Hinchcliffe and daughter Sophie MaeThe source added: “She finally has a sense of who she is, and where she has got her genes from. It’s been a difficult process, but one everyone has handled with kindness and compassion, and it seems like - everything is now settling into place.”
Sir David and Jennifer’s relationship began at the start of 1970, when he was 30. They both starred in Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood at London’s May Fair theatre. A year later he appeared in a film version of the classic.
The pair stayed in touch through a shared circle of friends. Abi was born in October that year. She and Sir David have crossed paths several times through mutual friends but he had no idea they were related.
Jennifer was married to screen star Geoffrey Davion, who appeared in Miss Marple and The Stars Look Down, and Abi believed he was her father until his death in 1996. Jennifer, who has appeared in Doctor Who and Bond movie, Octopussy, and Sir David were reunited in 2008 for a reprisal of Under Milk Wood, featuring many of the same cast from the 1970 production.
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But in a remarkable turn of events, it also starred Abi alongside her mum. It would be another five years before Abi started to suspect Sir David could be her real father, after conversations with Jennifer.
The source said: “Things just didn’t seem to add up.” Abi and Sir David happened to be standing beside one another at an event for a mutual friend when she spotted they had similar side profiles. She then became convinced he was her father.
Understandably, she felt reluctant to broach such a sensitive subject for many years afterwards, though it played on her mind often. But it was watching Charlie grow, and fearing there could be a line of her family’s hereditary health conditions she knew nothing about, that finally compelled her to act.
Abi bravely decided to write Sir David a letter and, fittingly, opened with a line from Dylan’s play which read: “To begin at the beginning. Or to be more precise, my beginning…” In the note, she told Sir David of her hunch and asked him if he would take a paternity test.
The letter naturally came as a shock to Sir David, who became a father to Sophie at the age of 61 in 2001. But rather than being horrified, he was sympathetic to Abi’s request.
The source said: “It’s a lovely letter, which David has kept. It was light-hearted but serious, without being overwhelming. It was obvious whoever had written it was a nice person who just wanted to find out her heritage. The Dylan quote was the perfect way to start it.
“It was a sympathetic way of saying, ‘Brace yourself’.” Sir David agreed to take the paternity test but it still came as a complete surprise to everyone when it showed he was Abi’s father.
The stunned family met up at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone, Central London, to discuss how to connect. The source added: “Everyone prepared themselves for both scenarios, but it still came as an almighty shock when it came back as a positive match.
“Abi went to pieces. It’s hard to imagine discovering anyone unexpected is your father, but a TV icon, who she idolised growing up, was just astonishing. He was a hero of hers. You can’t imagine how incredible a discovery it was. But everyone has been so loving and accepting.”
Jennifer Hill starred in the James Bond film OctopussyActor Abi Harris told of her delight at discovering her father was David, after years of wondering. But this of course was tinged with sadness at the family’s lost years together. The 52-year-old said: “In discovering my father’s identity, I am starting to piece together my own. Of course, I am tickled pink and incredibly proud but, frequently, completely overwhelmed with sorrow for the years we have lost.
“After a measured start, now I hope we can consciously make time to see each other more often, so that I can master the art of being the best big sister and build a meaningful father-daughter relationship in its truest sense.”
With Abi and Sophie being brought up as only children, it has delighted both of them to suddenly find they have a sister. Sophie has offered to help decorate Abi’s Brighton home, and makes an effort to pop home from university when she and Charlie are visiting Sir David and Gill.
Cheeky Charlie, who was already a fan of Sir David’s work voicing the Big Friendly Giant, even bought his mum a game of Only Fools and Horses-themed Top Trumps for her birthday, in a nod to her dad’s time spent playing Del Boy in the series. Not only does Abi clearly share her father’s genes, she has also inherited his acting talents, appearing in Doctor Who: The Eighth of March, Strange Chemistry and The Avengers: The Comic Strip Adaptations Volume 7.
A source said: “It would be a dream come true for Abi, if they could work together again now they know they are related.” Sir David added: “We hope we are all allowed the privacy to continue our new relationship and get to know each other more and more.”
Sir David married Gill, who he met on the set of A Bit of a Do in 1989, in an intimate ceremony with just 50 guests at the Dorchester hotel on November 30, 2005. That was the eve of his investiture ceremony. In 2000, he and Gill decided to start a family, when he turned 60 and she was aged 40.
He wrote in his autobiography: “We were older than people conventionally are when they think about these things. The idea scared us a lot. We batted it back and forth.”
But “fate answered”, he added, and he became a father to Sophie in 2001 despite thinking his chance had “swept by” due to his workload. He joked in his book that on the night she was born, he did not talk to her in the window of the hospital like Del Boy does with his son Damien.
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