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Miranda Hart has been flooded with support from fans after revealing she had gained weight due to ‘illness’.

The actress and comedian, 51, appeared in BBC sitcoms including Hyperdrive and Not Going Out before her semi-autobiographical sitcom Miranda hit screens in 2009.

It ran for three seasons and several Christmas specials, winning three Royal Television Society awards, four British Comedy Awards and four BAFTA nominations until wrapping up in 2015.

Miranda also appeared as Camilla ‘Chummy’ Fortescue-Cholmondeley-Browne in the BBC drama series Call the Midwife for three years from 2012.  

Her memoir-cum-self-help manual I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest with You is also due to be released in coming months.

However, when promoting the book this week, Miranda shared she had been experiencing feelings of ‘shame’ in recent years.

Miranda Hart has spoken about gaining weight due to ‘illness’ (Picture: Miranda Hart/ Instagram)

Wearing a T-shirt that read ‘Proud’ and holding her book, she at first joked she had ‘lost all of the midlife weight that was lumped on in the last three years’.

‘I haven’t,’ she whispered before pointing to the title of her book.

‘But can I just say I’m actually really quite proud of the fact that I’ve dismantled quite a lot of shame about my weight gain, not that because I don’t think bigger is beautiful, but because it isn’t quite me and I feel really uncomfortable and it’s one of the things I talk about in there,’ she added before telling fans to make sure to pre-order it.

She explained more in the caption of the post, writing: ‘I have found it incredibly hard not to feel shame from gaining weight over the last three years.

‘Not because of striving for an aesthetic ideal but because it doesn’t represent me and who I naturally am.

‘But life happens. Illness happens. And it’s a great way to keep focusing on the greatest healer – self-compassion. If I lose it or not I know I am loved. Peace out.’

The comedian and actress said she had ‘dismantled a lot of shame’ (Picture: Dave J Hogan/ Getty Images)

Miranda was met with plenty of support from her followers.

‘Weight gain is horrendously misunderstood, and people can be terribly judgemental. Learning to accept yourself is a really good place to start. Looking forward to reading the book!’ Tracey commented.

‘I’m in my 40s, and the last three years have been a nightmare for weight gain, no matter what I do. THANK YOU for being real on here’, CG shared.

‘You have achieved all of these amazing things in life because of who you are, not because of what clothes size you are. You have a whole lot of love around you,’ JulieAnne added.

Miranda has previously written four books, starting with the semi-autobiographical Is It Just Me? In 2012.

She previously starred in her self-titled sitcom Miranda (Picture: BBC)
She also played Chummy in Call the Midwife (Picture: BBC/ Neal Street Productions)

Speaking about her book last month, Miranda said her book would ‘share the treasures’ she had learned during ‘darkness’.

‘The things that helped me to live and feel like I am free and joyful and peaceful and physically recovered in a way that I never thought possible,’ she explained in a video shared on Instagram.

‘There’s always hope, I suppose. Whatever you might be going through at the time. None of us go through life without some testing or trials, do we?”

She added that she’d been through a ‘very unexpected decade’ that included both ‘surprising and incredible joys’ as well as ‘equally surprising challenges’.

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Miranda is streaming on BBC iPlayer.

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