Britain's youngest mum: Girl who was pregnant at 11 says she will fight to see her daughter

By Maureen Culley
From : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Aged just 12 years old, this is Britain's youngest mother holding her newborn baby.

Still a child herself, the new parent's sunken, fearful eyes and inability to smile transform what should be a joyful moment into a desperately unsettling scene.

Tressa Middleton's pregnancy four years ago shocked the nation when she admitted having sex while drunk and spoke of her excitement at becoming a mother.

Now the Scot is 16 and fighting for the right to see her adopted daughter again, as the uneasy images of her holding her baby are shown for the first time.

She yesterday admitted spiralling into a deep depression and turning to alcohol and drugs after the baby was born, when she found herself battling to keep the infant.

Unsettling: Pictures taken of Tressa Middleton soon after the birth in 2006

Miss Middleton said she has quit drugs and alcohol and spoke of her regret at ever letting her baby go.

She told the Scottish Sun: 'I'm not a big drinker now and I don't smoke hash any more. In the past I've cut myself but I don't do that any more. I'm going to give myself a couple of years to get my life sorted, then I'm going to fight for access to my little girl.

When her daughter was born in 2006, the pair were taken into foster care. Eighteen months ago, a child psychologist decided it was in the best interests of the infant that she be adopted.

Miss Middleton signed papers handing over her daughter to an anonymous couple who, when the adoption became official, decided that they did not want to allow the birth mother any access.

Her only contact is now a letter from the child's new parents every six months, updating her on the little girl's progress.

Miss Middleton said yesterday: 'I got to meet her adoptive parents but I wasn't allowed to know their names. They were maybe mid-30s. They seemed lovely but it doesn't really matter who was taking her - I never wanted to let her go.

'After I'd signed the adoption papers, I went to court to fight for twice-a-year contact. I'd even tried to make a deal that if I signed the papers I would get to see her once a year, but the adoptive parents didn't want that. They don't want me to see her. They want to get on with their lives. It makes me hate them.

'At the end of the day, she's my wee girl and I'm doing them a favour. I wasn't asking for much, asking to see her once a year, but they thought I was.'

Heartache: Tressa, now 16, wants to see her child

When she became pregnant in 2005, the case prompted dismay from church and family groups, amid criticisms that a Scottish Executive campaign to cut teenage pregnancies had failed.

Concern over 'broken Britain' rose further when details of Miss Middleton's chaotic home life in Armadale, West Lothian,emerged.

She was one of six children - by four different fathers - to her then 34-year-old mother, who said she was 'proud' of her daughter for keeping the baby.

On the bleak streets where Miss Middleton was raised, petty crime is rife and drink and drugs are ever present. Boarded-up windows abound and gardens are strewn with bed frames, discarded mattresses and other rubbish.

Children gather on street corners and it is far from unusual to see young girls pushing prams.

Despite barely being out of primary school, Miss Middleton smoked up to 20 cigarettes a day, used cannabis and downed cocktails of Buckfast tonic wine and vodka.

Speaking under the cover of anonymity at the time, she disclosed that she had discovered the pregnancy weeks after having drunken sex in August 2005.

Drawing on a roll-up cigarette while heavily pregnant, she said: 'I slept with him because I was drunk and I wanted to. I don't regret it because if I didn't have sex with him I wouldn't have my baby. I knew straight away that I couldn't have an abortion because that's something I don't believe in.'

The girl was scared to tell her mother who, ironically, had given birth to her youngest child days before her daughter found that she was pregnant.

Miss Middleton admitted that she had an argument with her mother after breaking the news of her pregnancy.

'It was hard but it has brought me and my mum closer together,' she said. 'It's good to know I'll have my mum there to help me if I need her.'

Now 16 and legally an adult, she is able to speak openly about her experiences for the first time and has also allowed the images of those early moments after the birth to be published.

Miss Middleton, who believes she has 'turned a corner' in her life, hopes to join the Army and prove that she deserves to see her child again.

She spoke yesterday of the time when she first felt that she would lose her daughter.

This came before the adoption was even official, when the baby went to live with her foster family and the teenager was allowed to see the child only every three months at a family centre.

A child herself: Tressa with her newly-born daughter

The young mother said: 'My daughter sometimes called me "Mummy" then one day she called me by my first name and called her foster carer "Mum". It really hurt and I burst into tears. Then she wouldn't come to me. She refused and would start screaming. It felt like every time I saw her I was losing her more and more.

'The adoptive parents gave her their surname. They've kept her first name the same, but hearing that her name had changed was heartbreaking. It's like they're turning my wee girl into someone different. She was dressed different and her hair was different. It was hard to see someone else bringing up my wee girl.'

Miss Middleton is not allowed to know where her daughter is living or see photographs, although the latest progress letter, from March, described the three-year-old as 'a very happy, chatty, self-confident and together little girl.'

Miss Middleton said: 'When I read it I just started crying. It says she can read numbers 0-9 and count to 20. That's all the things I wanted to teach her as her mum. It's wee simple things like that which affect me.

'I get upset when I see wee girls walking past with their mums. I miss my wee girl every day. I've kept all her clothes from when she was a baby. I keep under my pillow a wee pink Babygro and hat from when she was born.'

Miss Middleton, who now has only limited contact with her own family and lives in Dumfries, admitted, however, that adoption was in her daughter's 'best interests'.

But she added: 'It was the hardest thing I've ever done. I don't think I can give my daughter the life she needs just now.

'When I'm older I want to build a relationship with my daughter. I'm concentrating on sorting myself out so that one day I'll hopefully see my wee girl again. I love her to bits.'

15 Hottest Mother Daughter Combos in Show Business

From: http://www.popcrunch.com/
April 16th, 2009 by Sarah
Hollywood is not for want of beautiful women, or iconic show business families. There are however, much fewer attractive mother-daughter combinations than one would likely imagine. While we all know the more popular ones, there are some surprising examples, found when this topic was further investigated. Baring in mind, some of these women have passed (away or their prime), this list has been compiled to present the most beautiful mother-daughter combinations in Hollywood, even if their hotness was short-lived or long-gone.

Goldie Hawn - Kate Hudson

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These two are perhaps the most famous of the mother-daughter pairings in Hollywood. These days, most recognize Hawn s simply Kate Hudson’s mom, but judging from old pics from the early 1980s (or the 1970s as above), she was quite the looker. Hudson, definitely took after her mom in the looks department, and has carved out a leading woman career for herself. In 2004, this pairing became a grandmother, and mother respectively - with the birth of Hudson’s son (fathered by The Black Crowes’ front man Chris Robinson) Ryder Russell Hudson

Peggy Lipton - Rashida Jones

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Peggy Lipton is best known for her role in the 1970s “The Mod Squad”. She married Prolific music producer Quincy Delight Jones in 1974, and gave birth to two daughters, Kidada (1974) and Rashida (1976). While the eldest daughter is probably best known for having been Tupac Shakur’s fianc when he passed away, Rashida followed in her mother’s acting footsteps. Since she started acting in 1997, she has become increasingly popular, mostly due to her role as Karen Filipelli on “The Office”, or for playing opposite Paul Rudd in I Love You, Man (2009).

Lisa Bonet - Zoe Kravitz

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When people found out that Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz were having a child, they could only speculate about what their uber-attractive offspring would end up looking like. I think few people are surprised, and no one is disappointed. She looks like a perfect combination of her parents.

Bebe Buell - Liv Tyler

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Bebe Buell was very similar to the “Penny Lane” character in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (2000). Her list of famous musician lovers included: Todd Rundgren, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Steven Tyler, Rod Stewart and Elvis Costello. She was also involved with Jack Nicholson at some time. during her il-lust-rious career. Her daughter, Liv Tyler (born 1977) was actually the biological daughter of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler (as her name suggests), even though she believed Rundgren to be her father throughout the late 1980s. When Tyler finally got clean and sober, Buell and her daughter dropped the “..by the way..” bomb on him. The two Tylers have enjoyed a close relationship since. The lips, we’re thinking, are a dead give away.

Marcheline Bertrand - Angelina Jolie

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Bertrand is definitely lesser known than her famous well-endowed and philanthropic starlet of a daughter; she was wed to Jon Voight from 1971-1978. Their marriage produced the bearer of Hollywood’s most famous set of lips, and her brother, actor James Haven. Bertrand’s filmography was somewhat limited, and by the ealy 1980s she had moved on to pursue producing. While she sadly passed away two years ago, Bertrand is generally remembered in a positive light, and it is safe to say she was quite a looker herself during her youth.

Tippi Hedren - Melanie Griffith - Dakota Johnson

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The Hedren-Griffith-Johnson pedigree is definitely a forced to be reckoned with. Hedren is probably best known for being part of John Hitchcock’s The Birds and Marnie; Johnson is best known as the much-lauded byproduct of Griffith’s brief marriage to Miami Vice star, Don Johnson. While Melanie Griffith has generated a fair amount of criticism for her appearance lately, it goes without saying that she was once hailed as one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood. Her daughter, Dakota, is certainly following in her footsteps.

Susan Sarandon - Eva Amurri

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While some people will say that Susan Sarandon has not aged that well, others claim that she is an earnest example of an aging starlet coming to terms - without resorting to intense plastic surgery and over-the-top youth-yearning outfits. Suffice to say, there is little to argue about her scenes (especially the nude ones) in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Amurri, her daughter, shows all the signs of following her mother’s footseps, most notably when it comes to the breast department.

Janet Leigh - Jamie Lee Curtis

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Janet Leigh is probably best known for having played the role of the blond bombshell that gets slayed in the shower - and subsequently bleeding chocolate syrup - in Hitchcock’s seminal suspense- thriller, Psycho. Her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, enjoyed a long Hollywood career as a leading lady, and got down to her essentials in True Lies (strip scene anyone?). While Leigh has since passed away, and Curtis has passed her prime, there is no sense in compiling this list without their inclusion.

Lisa Marie Presley - Riley Keough

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Similar to Jamie Lee Curtis, Lisa Marie Presley lost her hotness a long time ago. We’re speculating that it had a lot to do with her untimely marriage to everyone’s favorite freak, Michael Jackson, during the mid 1990s. But I’d be lying if I said that (at one time) thoughts of her going to town on my own graceland did not get me at least at half mass. Her daughter on the other hand, is smoooookoing. It’s just a bummer she’s dating Ashley Parker Angel, or Ryan Cabrera or whatever that douchebag’s name is.

Demi Moore - Rumor Willis

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Ok, it goes without saying that Demi Moore is the all-time hottest MILF in Hollywood. At least for me, anyways. Have you ever seen her in Striptease? Game over. But with that said, it would be hard to imagine the apple falling far from the tree. Moore’ daughter with noted bad ass, Bruce Willis, is now hitting the Hollywood club semi-actress scene, and it seems that she is gradually becoming more attractive. While each makeover and minor plastic surgery procedure is bringing her closer to”hotness”, we are including her in this list in good faith that she will one day move entirely away from her status as a butterface. Do us proud Rumor.

Janet Jones - Paulina Gretzky

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Wayne Gretzky was the perfect example of a nerd that was good at one thing. For most (Steve Jobs and Bill Gates) this means computers, but for Gretzky it meant Hockey - he is still currently the NHL’s all-time highest scorer. His wife was different: a corn-fed Midwestern beauty that went on to become a model, actress and fitness guru in the 1980s, she was perfect shoulder candy for “The Great One”. Their daughter,21 year old Paulina, is aspiring to be the next great Canadian songbird, and has been actively modeling since 2005. Rumor has it, she is also a scratch golfer, so for any men with a chance of dating her, it’s safe to take her to the course with you.

Bianca Jagger - Jade Jagger

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Mick Jagger was married to Bianca Jagger (Née Peréz-Mora Maricas) from 1971 to 1979. During this time, the rocker and British-Nicaraguain model parented Jade (1971), who has gone on to enjoy a successful career as a model, and more recently, a jewelery designer. We think that she should have stuck to modeling - just look at that picture. In 1992, Jade herself gave birth to a daughter, Georgia, who sometime next year (may even make it onto the follow up to this list, per Hedren-Griffith-Johnson. Only time will tell…

Jerry Hall - Elizabeth Jagger

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Jerry Hall is perhaps best known as having been Mick Jagger’s (yes, Jagger again) long-time partner and Common Law wife, and with whom she gave birth to their four children. But during the height of her career, Hall was one of the most in-demand models in the world, often earning in excess of $1000/day. The eldest of her and Mick’s children, Jade was born in 1984 and is following in her mom and older half-sister’s footsteps as a model. In 2002, she added “actress” to her resumé, with a supportive role in Igby Goes Down, and she continues to do print work - most recently with French-based Lancôme.

Colleen Farrington - Diane Lane

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Diane Lane is that actress that for some reason is much hotter than her name sounds. For some reason, “Diane” sounds like she should be one of your mom’s overweight friends. Lane, however, is definitelooker even at the ripe age of 44. What al ot of people don’t know about her, is that her mother was a famous playmate during the nascent stages of Playboy. Farrignton went on to pursue a career in lounge-singing and more modelling after having been the magazine’s Playmate of the Month in October 1957. Pictures from this issue are available online, and we suggest you do a Google image search for more information.

Pearl Lowe - Daisy Lowe

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Pearl Lowes was known as the lead singer for 1990s rock bands, Powder and Lodger, but perhaps she is most famous for having bore Gavin Rosdale’s first child via a one-night stand (Sorry, Gwen). Since becoming a mother (of Daisy, above), Pearl decided to pursue modeling and textile/fashion designing. Only 39 herself, she gave birth to Daisy in 1989. Like her mother, the younger Lowes is currently generating a fair amount of attention as a model, having been featured in “Harpar’s Bazaar”, “W Magazine”, and Italian “Vogue”. She has something of a “Mandy Moore” thing going for her, and we are interesting in seeing her grace the covers of some more racier publications.