Mr. Bean's daughter changes name

When comic Rowan Atkinson’s daughter, Lily, launched her career as a burlesque dancer and singer two years ago, it was not just her sultry vocals and racy outfits that attracted interest, but her father’s world- famous surname.

Now, however, 22-year-old Lily has ditched the Atkinson and adopted the maiden name of her mother, Sunetra Sastry, whom the Black-adder star dumped for a woman little older than his daughter.

‘It’s a real mystery,’ says one of Lily’s admirers. ‘Atkinson has been Lily’s name all her life, but she’s now dropped it and is styling herself as Lily Sastry.

‘I hope she hasn’t fallen out with her dad. The divorce was really hard for everyone in the family.’

After a string of successful performances in London last year, including at St James Theatre, Lily suddenly disappeared from social media — the only platform she relied on to promote her work and forthcoming gigs — leaving her 45,000 followers in the lurch. 

She also deleted her entire catalogue of posts on the picture-sharing website Instagram over the past two years.

But what has now really set tongues wagging is her decision to eradicate all traces of her father from her public profile. I disclosed in 2014 that Atkinson’s 24-year marriage to former BBC make-up artist Sunetra, 55, had hit the rocks and that he had a new woman in his life.

This article was first published on dailymail.co.uk and is republished here with permission.