I was spoiled as a child but neglected emotionally by my partying Emmerdale star mum, claims Mia Winward

The Sun

18-06-2025

SITTING by the pool in her luxury Mexican villa, Mia Winward is the envy of hoards of young women her age.
But as I speak to the 20-year-old Brit model this week she breaks down in tears.
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It's the start of what turns out to be a bombshell chat, where Mia claims for the first time that she was emotionally mistreated by her famous parents.
Through tears she tells The Sun: 'I was raised by a 19-year-old soap star... I may have been spoiled materially, but I was definitely neglected emotionally.
"I often felt lonely, picked on and controlled - about what I wore, what I said in public and most of all unsupported.
"At times her choices - like boyfriends - left me feeling scared and sometimes it felt like too much pressure was placed on my shoulders."
Mia's claims come after her famous parents Emmerdale star Sammy Winward, 39, and former footballer David Dunn, 45, cut her out of their lives last year after the then-teenager joined controversial adult site OnlyFans.
The blonde star - who claims to make up to £100k a month - says they now refuse to pick up her calls.
Its something Mia finds hypocritical as her mum Sammy was a mags lad favourite back in her heyday and often appeared topless - posing for shots just like Mia.
'I may have been spoiled materialistically, but I was definitely neglected emotionally.'
Mia Winward
'My mum was doing pretty much the exact same thing like I'm doing, her version of it, back in her day.
'I just think how, how can you not be accepting? You were younger than me when you stripped off sand now you've completely blocked me out of your life."
'I saw her for 10 minutes a day'
Mia was just a baby when her mum, Sammy, was at the height of her fame playing Katie Sugden on the ITV soap.
Her earliest memories with her mum are sparse. Her dad - the footy star David - split from Sammy shortly after Mia was born.
'When she was working, I would see her for maybe 10 minutes a day," Mia says.
"I'd be asleep when she got back from work and would see her briefly in the mornings and then she'd have to go.'
Sammy Winward's daughter Mia Dunn reveals she's raked in £60k a month on OnlyFans amid feud with Emmerdale star mum
Mia says as a result of her mum's schedule she was raised by her gran, telling us: 'My grandma literally gave up her entire life for me, got a flat in Leeds, near the Emmerdale set, just to take me on to set for my mum to breastfeed.
'My mum was often out partying when I was younger, leaving me with my grandma, which I was always happy to go to because my grandma is one of people who really raised me.'
She added: "My mum wasn't there for me. She didn't support me."
Sammy split from Mia's dad - Blackburn Rovers footballer David - shortly after she was born, which meant Mia met a number of the actress's new partners over the years.
One sticks out in her mind who Mia recalls being very cruel to her.
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'She had new boyfriends when I was younger, one in particular, who would yell at me about four or five years old just for coming into the bedroom when I had a nightmare,' she remembers.
'Bear in mind, I used to sleep in my mum's bed because she was a single mother and I got scared as a child in the dark.'
According to Mia, things didn't get much easier as she became older.
She told us: "My mum made me pay for petrol for her car to get to my course and I was making £5 an hour as a trainee hair stylist at this point. It was really tough."
At 16, Mia says she had had enough of feeling like she was being controlled, told what she can and can't wear and not receiving the guidance she craved, so she made the decision to move in with her dad, who she'd had a rocky relationship with for several years.
Putting aside any hard feelings towards her father, who is now married to new wife Hayley with whom he shares three children, Mia tells The Sun: 'He was really young when I was born, and he messed up because he was younger.
'I understand that so much because I've put myself in his shoes and he really did help install a work ethic in me and I'll always appreciate him for taking me in. I was really touched."
During her earlier years, Mia has claimed she struggled to keep in touch with her dad and has accused him of not making enough effort to see her or even talk to her.
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But everything changed with her dad too when she started making adult content.
Just a few months ago she claims her father cruelly branded her a 'w***e' and slammed the phone down on her when she attempted to reconnect with him.
She fled the UK towards the end of last year and has been living in various countries - including Mexico and Canada - making adult content.
Mia has just bought her first property in Mexico.
She initially tried to distance herself from her well-known parents, opting to ditch her surname. ' I don't profit off of their name', she insists.
Mia may be known as Mia Winward in the press, but goes by Mia Rose online.
The Sun first told last year how Sammy, who is famed for playing Katie Sugden from 2001 to 2015 and is still a jobing actress, refused to speak to her daughter when she discovered she was on OnlyFans.
Mia's dad — former Blackburn footballer David — also distanced himself at the same time.
Mia was initially hopefully they could make it up, but over time the distance has become unbearable.
She says her latest attempt to contact her mum just a few days ago was unsuccessful and Mia feels she has reached the end of the line.
'People online see me as spoiled and I'm not denying that I was materialistically spoiled but I won't have people say I'm a spoiled brat when no one knows that I was emotionally neglected," she says.