{"id":713351,"date":"2026-07-27T09:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T09:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/713351\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T09:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T09:55:10","slug":"dawn-french-appears-to-defend-andy-burnhams-wife-marie-france-van-heel-in-passionate-video-about-body-shaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/713351\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawn French appears to defend Andy Burnham\u2019s wife Marie-France van Heel in passionate video about \u2018body shaming\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dawn French<\/a> has issued a strongly worded plea urging people to \u201cstop body shaming\u201d apparently in response to comments surrounding Marie-France van Heel<\/a>, the wife of prime minister Andy Burnham<\/a>. <\/p>\n

French, 68, shared a video of herself on Instagram on Friday (24 July), in which she hit out at \u201cbullying\u201d in regards to comments about a woman who she does not name. <\/p>\n

The Vicar of Dibley star began: \u201cSo, a woman\u2026 a human normal woman standing there and all you can talk about is her dress and her body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow dare you body shame her?\u201d she continued. \u201cThis is a bright woman who speaks lots of languages; she\u2019s run businesses; she\u2019s faced challenges you wouldn\u2019t even begin to imagine. You wouldn\u2019t have the f***ing courage for it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cStop it! Stop bullying people! It\u2019s a human being with a human body!\u201d she concluded. <\/p>\n

French did not mince her words in the caption for her video either, writing: \u201cSTOP BODY SHAMING PEOPLE YOU UTTER C***SHRIMPS!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

The actor\u2019s comments seem to be in response to the online conversation surrounding van Heel\u2019s appearance after she joined her husband, the newly appointed prime minister, at Buckingham Palace for his meeting with King Charles. <\/p>\n

Van Heel, known as Frankie, wore a pastel dress by British label Victoria Beckham<\/a> for the occasion, sparking some comments about her appearance that have been described as \u201csexist\u201d and \u201cshameful\u201d<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI am HORRIFIED by the vitriol Andy Burnham\u2019s wife is being subjected too,\u201d one person commented on French\u2019s Instagram post. Another added: \u201cSeriously?? Am I right in thinking she’s talking about the new prime ministers wife?! If so, Dawn is so right.\u201d <\/p>\n

Thousands of others also commented their support, including celebrities such as Paloma Faith, who wrote \u201cLove you Dawn!\u201d and Suranne Jones who added love heart emojis. <\/p>\n

Both Vicky Pattinson and Bodyguard star Keeley Hawes commented several hand-clapping emojis. <\/p>\n

\"Britain'sBritain’s newly appointed Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, and his wife, Marie-France van Heel, leave Buckingham Palace in London after an audience with King Charles (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Van Heel \u2013 who grew up in the Netherlands and Belgium \u2013 met Burnham while the two were studying at the University of Cambridge. They got married in 2000 and share a son, Jimmy, and two daughters, Rosie and Annie. <\/p>\n

Having worked in marketing and strategy for several years, Van Heel was involved in the logo designs for the BBC and England Rugby. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-713351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}