How Eurovision host Hannah Waddingham got her big break thanks to Apprentice star and stealing the show in Benidorm
AFTER years of hard graft, Hannah Waddingham is finally having her turn in the spotlight after wowing audiences as a Eurovision host.
Fans have been blown away by the 48-year-old’s flawless French, amazing vocals and eye-popping outfits after the Liverpool-based contest kicked off this week.
It follows her award-winning role as Rebecca Walton in Ted Lasso – a character she incredibly credits Apprentice star Karren Brady for inspiring.
The Apple TV+ series sees Ted Lasso, an American football coach, move to England to manage Rebecca’s AFC Richmond, despite having no experience of working in the sport.
Waddingham told how she had “kind of followed [Baroness Brady’s] unswerving power through a man’s world for years”.
According to Hannah, Baroness Brady “never for a second loses her femininity or chooses to hide it”.
She said: “I think she’s a wonderful role model for young women who must get sick and tired growing up seeing overly glossy, plastic women on the front of women’s magazines,” she added.
Model actress
Hannah won a SAG Award and an Emmy for the character – but her success has long been brewing since her musical theatre days.
Born in London, her mother Melodie was an opera singer while her dad was a part-time policeman – a profession her brother Sam also followed.
In her younger years, 5ft 11 stunner Hannah modelled for Cosmopolitan before getting her break on the West End in 1997 in The Wedding.
She credits the dance routines for her amazing figure.
She told The Sun: “I was size 14 when I started the show but dancing around every night has made me lose a stone. Now I am a size 12.”
Racy costumes
Her big break came in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton’s football musical The Beautiful Game in 2000.
She was then hand-picked by Elton to play Satan in Rod Stewart musical Tonight’s the Night in 2003.
But she had some particular costume demands, telling the Evening Standard: “I told Ben that instead of wearing a T-shirt, I had this zip-up catsuit from a fetish shop.
“He said ‘You can’t wear that!’ but that was the template for what I wear in the show.”
She enjoyed stage success and Olivier nominations for roles in Kiss Me Kate, Spamalot and the Wizard of Oz.
But it wasn’t until 2013 she made her breakthrough on TV as snobby Tonya Dyke in Benidorm.
As matriarch of the Dyke family she rubbed guests of the Solana up the wrong way for the whole of season six.
The character departed in season seven after finding knickers in her husband Clive’s car.
Hannah said she loved the opportunity to play a “dolly bird” but less so the attention her revealing costumes brought.
She told The Mirror: “I have never been groped in my life, but I was groped three times in one week in Benidorm.
“To get on set I had to walk through the hotel dressed as Tonya in some non-existent bikini and high heels with blokes gawping at me… or rather groping me.
“I had to stop myself doing what I’d instinctively do – knock their blocks off – because I was working.
“A little angel on my shoulder was going ‘Leave it Hannah!’- but I really wanted to take off my five-inch wedges and whack them.
“The worst thing is they were there with their wives who didn’t do a thing! So I’d say to the women, ‘Do you think it’s OK for your husband to behave like this?’
“It wasn’t nice, but the security people were very good and they started escorting me to and from the set.”
Benidorm romance
At that time she met her ex partner and father of daughter Kitty Gianluca Cugnetto at a slightly higher end hotel in St Vincent and Grenadines.
She added: “I remember Gianlucca walking into the bar and my best mate literally slapping my leg going, ‘Oh my God! Look at him!’ I got a bit fluttery. It was all very formal at first but, in the end, he left St Vincent and now we live together in London.
“It’s been a year and a half, so we are very strongly ensconced. He’s a true alpha male, a stunning, robust, immaculate, sartorially elegant man. Really lovely – and smoking hot!
“And he’s kind of interested in what I do, but not that much.
“He came out to Benidorm for a month when we were filming and he liked it because it was so different.
“But we stayed in an apartment, not a hotel. He couldn’t be less Benidorm if he tried.”
‘Surprise’ baby
A year later she announced her surprise pregnancy on ITV’s Lorraine and later told the Mirror: “I just feel massively privileged and blessed.
“It’s taken my breath away – I’m so pleased.”
The following year she was cast in Game of Thrones and famously chanted “Shame” at a shorn Cersei Lannister.
But soon things took a downward turn – she split with Gianluca and found out her daughter had an autoimmune disease called Henoch–Schönlein Purpura.
The painful condition causes blood vessels to swell, and raising areas of bleeding underneath the skin, as well as joint and abdominal pain.
When the diagnosis came Hannah had been filming SyFy series Krypton in Belfast.
She told the Daily Mail she had asked the universe for a starring role that would let her work near Kitty.
She said: “Can I thank you for what you’ve given me already, but can I just ask you for something that is close to home so I can do my main role, which is to be mama.
“And also can I ask that it’s something that really shows what I can do [as an actress].
“And I hope that’s not asking too much.”
Just two months later, the answer to her prayers came in the form of a meeting with Ted Lasso producers.
The actress impressed them and creator Jason Sudeikis so much they cast her as ball-breaker AFC Richmond owner Rebecca.
Now – as well as her Eurovision hosting gig – she’s starring in ITV’s period adaptation of Tom Jones.
But she’s pleased fame came to her later in life.
Speaking to the Times in 2021, she said: “I’ve been a grafter all my career”.
“I think it’s reassuring that, here I am, a single parent, at the age of 47, with the greatest success of my career.
“I’m actually quite glad… in terms of suddenly your career going into warp speed, I can see why younger people lose their s**t.”