Is Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham in Sex Education season 3?

Before starring as Rebecca Welton in the hit Apple TV series, Ted Lasso, Hannah Waddingham was one of the most important non-teen cast members in the Netflix original series, Sex Education. 

In the series, Waddingham plays Jackson Marchetti’s mom, Sofia. Early in the series, there’s a whole storyline about Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling) only competing as a swimmer because of Sofia’s influence. There’s a very good and emotional scene with Waddingham and Williams-Stirling.

But, early on in Sex Education season 3, which was just added to Netflix, Waddingham is missing. Does she eventually make an appearance in the season? We shared everything you need to know below!

Spoilers for Sex Education season 3 below! 

Hannah Waddingham is, indeed, in Sex Education season 3 but not much. For most of the season, Jackson is seen mom-less, and it makes sense in the story.

While Jackson is a focal point of the season, we’ve moved past the swim storyline from previous seasons. Instead, Jackson is exploring a new relationship with Cal (Dua Selah) for the majority of the season.

The key word there is “majority.”

At the end of the season, Cal admits it won’t work out with Jackson, despite him wanting to give things a chance. And, that’s where Waddingham enters the picture.

Jackson is alone and feeling a bit down in the dumps after the whole thing, and Waddingham’s character, Sofia, asks if he’s all right. When he admits that he is not, Sofia offers Jackson ice cream and an opportunity to talk about it.

We don’t ever get to see the conversion actually happen, unfortunately. I’m sure Sofia would have some incredible advice for Jackson that we would all love to hear.

The full answer on why Waddingham was only in Sex Education season 3 might never be revealed, but we’d suspect a few things.

First of all, as mentioned above, the storyline moved away from Jackson and Sofia’s mother-son relationship in season 3. There are only eight episodes and only so much screentime to spread around to this incredible cast.

On top of that, Waddingham was likely busy filming Ted Lasso season 2 around the same time that Sex Education season 3 was in production. We know filming was delayed on both shows.

It’s also possible that with those delays and the uncertainty caused by the pandemic that the writing team had to make a decision not to include Waddingham in the season all that much because of possibly interfering with Ted Lasso season 2.

In Ted Lasso, Waddingham is basically the second lead. In Sex Education, Waddingham is an important cast member among many important cast members.

We’ll let you know if we find out if Waddingham will be back in Sex Education season 4. Fingers crossed!