Sir David Jason has shared his regret and sadness over not being in his long lost daughter Abi Harris’ life for 52 years.
The Only Fools And Horses alum, 84, said he received the ‘most astonishing’ letter from the secret daughter he never knew he had.
In his new memoir This Time Next Year, David has recalled the overwhelming cascade of emotions he felt upon seeing the life-changing letter.
Abi is the daughter of actress Jennifer Hill – who starred in James Bond film Octopussy – after her mother and David had a brief relationship was born in 1970.
Opening up on the extraordinary moment in his life and how he wishes he knew Abi sooner, David said there is ‘the pang of sadness for those missing years, all that lost time’.
The Only Fools And Horses alum said he received the ‘most astonishing’ letter from the secret daughter he never knew he had
When he discovered the letter, David sat down in his kitchen and recalled how his hands shook as he started reading it.
David said he felt ‘wonder and amazement, through anxiety and heartache, to fear and outright panic’, when he knew the possibility that he had a second daughter.
In the letter, Abi wanted David to take an anonymous paternity test because she was uncertain – but insisted she didn’t want any financial support.
In The Mirror’s exclusive look at his book, he says: ‘You will be unsurprised to learn that my hands were shaking by now. What had I just read? I had to go back and read the whole thing again. And then I had to read it again. And then again after that.
‘I have to say it really hadn’t crossed my mind that Abi Harris was my daughter – that my relationship with Jennifer Hill while we were in that production of Under Milk Wood in 1970 could have produced a child without me knowing about it.
‘At no point in the nearly fifty years that had gone by since then had that thought had cause to enter my head.’
David credits his wife Gill Hinchcliffe, whom he shares a daughter Sophie with, for being ‘so supportive and understanding’ about it all, despite the shock they were both in.
When he met Abi for the first time, David said they both felt an ‘inevitable sense of distance’ due to the lost time they had.
In his new memoir This Time Next Year, David has recalled the overwhelming cascade of emotions he felt upon seeing the life-changing letter (pictured last week)
Abi is the daughter of actress Jennifer Hill – who starred in James Bond film Octopussy – after her mother and David had a brief relationship was born in 1970 (Jennifer pictured)
Opening up on the extraordinary moment in his life and how he wishes he knew Abi sooner, David said there is ‘the pang of sadness for those missing years, all that lost time’
David said he felt ‘wonder and amazement, through anxiety and heartache, to fear and outright panic’, when he knew the possibility that he had a second daughter (pictured in 2010)
David credits his wife Gill Hinchcliffe, whom he shares a daughter Sophie with, for being ‘so supportive and understanding’ about it all, despite the shock they were both in
David added that it was ‘such a complicated thing to process, for us both’, after their first encounter.
When he found out about Abi, he also discovered he had a 10-year-old grandson, Abi’s son Charlie.
Abi says while she had no idea who her father was – she had her suspicions after hearing about Jason’s relationship with her mother while they both starred in a stage adaptation of the Dylan Thomas radio play Under Milk Wood in 1970.
Her belief grew stronger after realising she shared the same shaped nose as him, and her parentage has now been confirmed.
She had previously thought her father was Geoffrey Davion, who was married to her mother, until his death in 1996.
Since the surprise discovery was made, Abi and Charlie have been to visit him and spent a period over Christmas with him and his family at his home in Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire.
She also seems to have inherited some of his famed acting ability, having appeared in an episode of Doctor Who and remarkably a revival performance of Under Milk Wood in 2008 where Sir David and her mother also took part.
Friends who saw the legendary actor and Abi stood next to each other remarked on their similar facial profiles, and as the years went past, she worked up the courage to find out the truth.
David was knighted for his services to acting and comedy in 2005. He married Ms Hinchcliffe in November of that year.
He started dating Gill after his long-term partner of 20 years, Welsh actress Myfanwy Talog, died from breast cancer aged 45 in 1995.
The TV star believed he became a father for the first time at the age of 61, and after Sophie was was born he said it had been ‘thrust upon him’ as most of his life was focused only on being a success.
He previously said: ‘My life has been in reverse. It wasn’t fame and it wasn’t money, but I always wanted to succeed. The only way I could do that was to try with every job to be better than I was in the last one, and to learn.
‘Because of that I needed to be footloose and fancy free.’
