To answer this troubling question, she attempts to get in contact with her birth mother, while also investigating the stark statistics that show children from diverse backgrounds are more likely to be placed for adoption.
In the first clip below, Simmonds grapples with the unthinkable task of writing a letter to her parents almost three decades since they gave her up.
Watch below, but be warned it's an extremely emotional scene:
At another point in the programme, Simmonds will be put in contact with a family who fostered her for a brief period while she was a baby, before she joined her permanent adoptive family.
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Although she only lived with them between the ages of two weeks and three months, Simmonds is touched to hear that they remember that period vividly, and that she remained in the thoughts of her late foster mother for many years after.
Watch the clip below:
Simmonds won a total of five gold medals across the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games, competing in various categories of women's swimming for Team GB.
She also won the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2008 and was made an OBE in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to Paralympic sport.
The swimmer announced her Paralympic retirement in September 2021, following the conclusion of the Tokyo games, and has since competed on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, where she came in 10th place.
Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family airs tonight, Thursday 6th July 2023, at 9pm on ITV1. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.
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