Wait, ‘Ted Lasso’ Star Hannah Waddingham Is the Mom in ‘Sex Education’ on Netflix?!

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Published Dec 27, 2021

Now that we’ve seen both seasons of Ted Lasso (multiple times), we can obviously name every cast member. Still, it took us a hot minute to realize that Hannah Waddingham is also in Sex Education.

The 47-year-old actress is widely known for starring in Ted Lasso as Rebecca Welton (formerly Rebecca Mannion), the owner of AFC Richmond who took over for her ex-husband, Rupert (Anthony Head). But in addition to appearing in the popular Apple TV series, Waddingham plays a key role in Netflix’s Sex Education: one of Jackson Marchetti’s (Kedar Williams-Stirling) moms, Sofia. Check out this emotional scene between the mother-son duo below.

In the first two seasons of Sex Education, Sofia was considered a main character, mainly because she inspired Jackson’s passion for competitive swimming. Sofia’s role became less prominent in season three, where she only made a brief appearance. The cameo took place at the end of season three, when Jackson was feeling down after getting dumped by Cal (Dua Saleh). That’s when Sofia entered the picture, asking if he was OK before offering support in the form of ice cream.

Netflix didn’t explain why Waddingham’s character was less involved in season three, but there are two possible reasons. First, the actress may have committed to other projects—like Ted Lasso—that interfered with the show’s filming schedule. And second, perhaps Netflix limited the number of people on set due to the coronavirus pandemic. The same thing happened with Annette O’Toole (who plays Hope on Virgin River).

If you need us, we’ll be re-watching Sex Education…and Ted Lasso.

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Greta Heggeness

Senior Editor

Greta Heggeness is a California-based editor at PureWow and has been writing about entertainment since 2015. She covers everything from awards shows to exclusive celebrity...

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