POSING proudly as she caresses her blooming baby bump, our exclusive photo shoot with Mia Winward should be one of the happiest moments of the first-time mum’s life.
But her special milestone is tinged with sadness. Her own mum, Emmerdale legend Sammy Winward, has no idea she is expecting – and it’s all down to a decision Mia made that has blown her family apart.
Mia Winward exclusively announces her pregnancy with The Sun
But her own mum has no idea she is expecting a baby – and it’s all down to a decision she made that has blown her family apartCredit: Aaron Parfitt
Two years ago, the 20-year-old left Emmerdale star Sammy Winward devastated by revealing she was stripping off on OnlyFansCredit: Getty
Mia has raked in a fortune with her saucy picsCredit: Instagram
Two years ago, the 20-year-old left her mum devastated by revealing she was stripping off on OnlyFans – a move she claims led to Sammy, 39, and her former footballer dad, David Dunn, 45, cutting all ties.
Mia’s baby news is likely to come as a huge shock to her parents, but she is keen to avoid stress while pregnant and hasn’t attempted to make contact just yet.
‘Haven’t reached out’
Instead, she is choosing to share her happy news with The Sun.
“I haven’t reached out to them yet and they don’t really know how to contact me,” she says.
“I am emotionally vulnerable while I’m pregnant and I really don’t want a big, stressful situation.”
While she is clearly eager to rebuild their relationship, Mia says pregnancy has only made her estrangement from Sammy even more bewildering.
“Now that I have my own baby inside me, I just couldn’t imagine not speaking to my child,” she says sadly.
“Don’t get me wrong, when I was younger I did have good parents. When I think about how I am, they made me who I was. But I made some decisions that they didn’t approve of.”
She previously claimed dad David, who once played for Blackburn Rovers, was so against her joining OnlyFans that he branded her a “w***e”.
She says the shocking remark came after she tried to extend an olive branch, but his reaction left her devastated and she described it as “absolutely disgusting”.
Despite the backlash, Mia makes no apology for her risqué decision, saying: “I don’t regret it because I had the best year or two of my life traveling the world doing shoots with amazing people. But that has come to an end now, as I’ve officially stopped doing it.”
In fact, life for Mia today is very different. The former party girl now lives in a remote house in the Lake District with the father of her unborn baby.
‘It’s bittersweet’
She is reluctant to name her boyfriend of one year, saying she wants to keep something back for herself, but she describes him as a “multi-talented guy”.
The only black mark is her alleged lack of communication with her loved ones.
She confides that there is one family member she still speaks to, but she is keeping their identity secret.
She tells us: “Finding out I was pregnant was a lovely surprise, but it’s bittersweet. I decided to quit OnlyFans the minute I found out.
“I was ready to let it go anyway, so it wasn’t that hard for me to come back to the UK from Mexico, where I’d been living with my boyfriend, and settle down.”
For most women, pregnancy is a chance to bond with their mothers, sharing precious moments and seeking advice on everything from cravings to caring for their newborns.
But Mia claims she hasn’t heard from Sammy in nearly two years and has just battled through another Christmas with no contact.
She says: “Shopping for baby clothes with my mum would be a lovely thing to do, but we’ve got a lot to work on. There’s a lot to forgive and that process hasn’t even started yet.”
Mia says she doesn’t regret her OnlyFans work but has stopped doing it now she is pregnantCredit: Instagram
Mia was raking in a staggering £100,000 a month by stripping off fully nude, but insists she will never return to the site now she’s expectingCredit: Instagram
Sammy, who played the Dales’ Katie Sugden from 2001 to 2015, refused to speak to her daughter after discovering she was on the racy siteCredit: Handout
Mia’s dad was not happy about her X-rated work
Although Mia has previously been defiant about her decision to join OnlyFans, she is now more understanding of her parents’ negative reactions.
She says: “I believe that, being so young, I maybe didn’t really understand why they were feeling like that, why they were judging my decisions.”
The Sun first reported in 2024 how Mia claimed Sammy, who played the Dales’ Katie Sugden from 2001 to 2015, refused to speak to her after discovering she was on the racy site.
But she struggled to accept her mum’s viewpoint, not least because Sammy herself was a lads’ mag favourite back in her heyday and often appeared in skimpy bikinis.
The similarities don’t stop there as, just like her lookalike daughter, Sammy was just 20 when she gave birth to Mia.
Shopping for baby clothes with my mum would be a lovely thing to do, but we’ve got a lot to work on
Mia Winward
The actress split from David just months later and is now married to her childhood sweetheart, Martyn Hardy. The couple first met at school and later rekindled their romance, tying the knot in 2017.
Reflecting on her own childhood, Mia claims that due to soap star Sammy’s work commitments, she was largely raised by her grandma.
“My grandma literally gave up her entire life for me, got a flat in Leeds near the Emmerdale set, just to take me on to the set for my mum to breastfeed,” she has said previously. “She is one of the people who really raised me.”
‘Retired from OnlyFans’
Tragically, Mia has lost contact with her beloved gran amid the family feud, but the mum-to-be is keen for Sammy to play an active part in her grandchild’s life.
“I think my mum would be an amazing grandma, I really do,” says Mia, who is more than 20 weeks pregnant and due around Easter.
“I think she’d be an amazing addition to my child’s life – in the future when there have been a lot of conversations and a lot of forgiveness on both sides.”
I think my mum would be an amazing grandma, says Mia who is keen for Sammy to play an active part in her grandchild’s lifeCredit: Aaron Parfitt
Mia’s saucy controversial career sparked a feud with her famous mum and dadCredit: Instagram/@miakaterose
Despite her optimism, Mia is worried about reconnecting with her mum and dad.
“It’s a very emotional thing to do after this long,” she says. “I feel like I’m a completely different person to the one they knew when we fell out. I just want to make sure I’m prepared.
“It’s quite a terrifying thing to do, to go back and say how I thought one thing at the time and now maybe don’t think it as much anymore.
“I want to get across that I don’t regret what I did, because it’s got me here.”
I am looking forward to reconciling in the future, but I believe that I need to be forgiven as well
Mia Winward
It is hardly surprising Mia feels little guilt about signing up to OnlyFans.
At one point she was raking in a staggering £100,000 a month by stripping off fully nude and she now has enough money to enjoy her pregnancy and maternity leave without having to work.
But she insists she will never return to the site, telling us: “I definitely won’t do it again. I’ve retired from OnlyFans at 20. I want to be right there with my baby.”
While Mia is now prepared to apologise for any upset she’s caused, she believes her parents need to do the same.
“I am looking forward to reconciling in the future, but I believe that I need to be forgiven as well,” she says.
“There’s not one second where I’ve thought I don’t want them involved in my life or in my baby’s life. I just want to make sure that I’m completely and utterly ready for that, which I will be eventually.
“But right now I just want to focus on me and the baby. I don’t want that [the baby] to be the reason that we start talking again. I want them to want to be in my life as well as my child’s.”
Even if they do make amends, Mia is determined to raise her child according to her own set of rules.
“I want to do things my way,” she says. “Not that I thought that my mum’s way was bad in any way, but I want to see how I do as a mother.”
Despite the previous bad blood, Mia insists she doesn’t blame her mum for how things have turned out.
“My decisions in life aren’t down to what my mum did growing up,” she says. “It was my own decisions that led me to do OnlyFans.”
Now that I have my own baby inside me, I just couldn’t imagine not speaking to my child, Mia saysCredit: Aaron Parfitt
