Christine McGuinness has revealed why her autism diagnosis was “a huge relief” for her.
The reality star was diagnosed with autism at the age of 33 last August, and later opened up about the disorder in a BBC documentary.
The model is married to TV presenter Paddy McGuinness, and the couple’s three young children Felicity, Leo and Penelope have all been diagnosed with autism too.
Speaking about her diagnosis on Channel 5 News, Christine said: “It’s been a huge relief, it’s really helped me understand why I am the way I am, why I’ve struggled throughout my whole life.”
“It kind of makes sense as to why I have got three autistic children. It’s been a huge positive for me.”
“Right through school I really struggled, I never really had many friends and I still don’t have many friends now.”
“I struggle with change, I struggle with food, sensory issues, clothes, labels, being in busy places. It’s everything – I ticked a lot of boxes, I am surprised it wasn’t picked up a lot earlier.”
“My autism diagnosis was a huge relief – it helped me understand why I struggled my whole life”
Model and Real Housewives of Cheshire star Christine McGuinness talks to @sianwilliams100 about what it’s like to be diagnosed with autism as an adult.#MindMatters | #5News pic.twitter.com/0TObEongHg
— Channel 5 News (@5_News) January 5, 2022
The former Miss Liverpool also explained she never wanted to eat in school, which resulted in her having an eating disorder.
She said: “When I was at school, obviously autism wasn’t really spoken about much back then, I don’t think I’d even heard of it.”
“But, I missed every single meal time – I didn’t eat when I was at school for years and years and I actually had an eating disorder.”
“I didn’t understand then what was going on, but all my reasons for not eating at school was autistic symptoms.”
Christine was worried her autism diagnosis would affect her work, but said it’s actually “really helped”.
The mum-of-three explained: “Not long after I got my diagnosis I started filming a TV show and it was the first time I had to spend time with people that I didn’t know and we were expected to interact all day and make conversation, eat together, all these things that I have really struggled with…”
“Understanding that I was struggling because I’m autistic, I was able to just speak to them and say, ‘Listen, every now and again I’m going to have a little bit of time-out’.
“If I hadn’t have had my diagnosis before that, I would have been panicking thinking that I look really unsocial.”
“It’s been really positive being able to say, ‘It’s going to help me if I can just do this’.”
