Miranda Hart has been through 'difficult times' in recent years: 'There is always hope...'

Miranda Hart has been through some "really difficult" times in the last decade.

The 51-year-old comedienne found fame with her eponymous sitcom - which ran on the BBC from 2009 until 2015 - and also starred on 'Call The Midwife' but has only appeared in a handful of projects in recent years and in a social media post revealed that the last 10 years have been filled with "tests and trials" for her.

She wrote: "I've been through a very unexpected decade and there have been surprising and incredible joys but also some really difficult equally surprising challenges. All the test and trials I've been through are in here... I am here, I am intact, I got through it."

Miranda has decided to share everything from those "dark" times in her new book 'I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You' and promised fans that there is "always hope" no matter what is going on in life.

She added: "I am sharing the treasures I learnt in darkness and the things that helped me to live and feel like I am free and joyful.

"There is always hope, whatever you might be going through. None of us go through life without some testing or trials, do we?"

The post comes just days after Miranda - who appeared in the feature film 'Emma' in 2020 and in 2017 starred as Miss Hannigan in the West End revival of 'Annie' for a period of time - addressed her personal struggles with gaining weight.

She said: "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."