She has made her name as the terminally single, middle-aged woman – constantly on the lookout, but never able to secure a husband.
But it appears that Miranda Hart may have found love at the tender age of 51.
In publicity for her new book, I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You, the comic actor teases in her inimitable style that she ‘couldn’t possibly say if there is a love story in it… (There is – shush) Exciting.’
Ms Hart also appears to be wearing a wedding band in recent videos and snaps posted on Instagram, where she has a million followers.
It has set tongues wagging about whether she has got hitched, and locals near her West London home have seen her with a mystery man. But there was no sign of the pair at her £2 million house in Hammersmith yesterday.
Much-loved Ms Hart catapulted to fame with her self-titled BBC sitcom in 2009, in which her fictional mother Penny exclaims ‘Such fun!’ whenever she thinks her daughter is about to bag a boyfriend. It follows her quest to find ‘the perfect man’ and her dalliance with dishy chef Gary.
Miranda Hart wearing what appears to be a wedding band on her right hand… but is she trying to throw us off the scent by not wearing it on her left?
Miranda Hart as Miranda and Tom Ellis as Gary in series three of the show
Miranda pictured in a wedding dress in one of the episodes of her hit comedy
Ms Hart, who played nurse Chummy in Call The Midwife and Miss Bates in Emma, revealed over the summer that she has had been battling a chronic illness for three years.
She wrote online last week: ‘Big news – book out in a week. I share lots of stories of my last decade – mainly what I have learnt living with chronic illness – but there’s lots of fun and some of my own big news.’
And in a publicity blurb for the book on Amazon, out on Thursday, Ms Hart writes she has had an ‘unexpectedly difficult decade – there have been surprising joys, but also deep revelations and challenging lows. I shall be honest about those, because what I discovered in the difficult times were my, what I call, treasures’.
‘Treasures – practical tools, values, ways, answers researched from some great scientists, neuroscientists, therapists, sociologists (all the ‘ists’) out there, that have genuinely led to a sense of freedom, joy, peace and physical recovery I never would have thought possible.
‘Life now, amazingly, with what I will share, is – such fun (always important to quote your own catch phrases)! If you fancy having a read, then I hope my story might help your story. After all, we are in this beautiful, mysterious, challenging life together.’
The comic, whose father was commanding officer of HMS Coventry, sunk by Argentina in 1982, has previously joked about her love life, saying: ‘I was very naive sexually. My first boyfriend asked me to do missionary and I buggered off to Africa for six months.’
Miranda Hart at the ‘Spy’ film premiere in London in 2015
The front cover of Miranda’s new book ‘I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You’
Miranda Hart at the ‘Annie’ press night in London in June 2015
In a video promoting the book in August, she revealed she had been battling a secret illness which has caused her to ‘gain weight’ over the past few years.
The comedian said that she has ‘felt shame’ from gaining weight, not because she is striving for an ‘aesthetic ideal’ but because she doesn’t feel like herself.
Miranda told her fans she had been diagnosed with an ‘illness’ but did not disclose what she had been suffering from.
In the video Miranda said she has worked hard to remove the negative feelings about her body.
The caption of the clip, read: ‘I have found it incredibly hard not to feel shame from gaining weight over the last three years.
‘Not because of striving for an aesthetic ideal but because it doesn’t represent me and who I naturally am. But life happens. Illness happens.
‘And it’s a great way to keep focusing on the greatest healer – self-compassion. If I lose it or not I know I am loved. Peace out.’
The TV star, who was wearing a T-shirt which was branded with the word Proud, held up her book and joked she had ‘lost all of the midlife weight that was lumped on’.
She whispered ‘I haven’t, before pointing to the title of her new memoir.
Miranda and Gary in episode three of season three of the hit comedy show
The comedian said that she has ‘felt shame’ from gaining weight, not because she is striving for an ‘aesthetic ideal’ but because she doesn’t feel like herself
Miranda Hart pictured during the filming of the Graham Norton Show
Miranda told her fans she had been diagnosed with an ‘illness’ but did not disclose what she had been suffering from
Miranda continued: ‘But can I just say I’m actually really quite proud of the fact that I’ve dismantled quite a lot of shame about my weight gain, not that because I don’t think bigger is beautiful, but because it isn’t quite me and I feel really uncomfortable and it’s one of the things I talk about in there.’
She explained more in the caption of the post, writing: ‘I have found it incredibly hard not to feel shame from gaining weight over the last three years.
‘Not because of striving for an aesthetic ideal but because it doesn’t represent me and who I naturally am.
‘But life happens. Illness happens. And it’s a great way to keep focusing on the greatest healer – self-compassion. If I lose it or not I know I am loved. Peace out.’
Miranda’s fans flooded her comments section with messages of support after she candidly spoke about both her illness and weight gain.
They said: ‘Weight gain is horrendously misunderstood, and people can be terribly judgemental. Learning to accept yourself is a really good place to start. Looking forward to reading the book!’; ‘I’m in my 40s, and the last three years have been a nightmare for weight gain, no matter what I do. THANK YOU for being real on here’.
‘You have achieved all of these amazing things in life because of who you are, not because of what clothes size you are. You have a whole lot of love around you.’