Christine McGuinness has revealed how she sat down and told her three children that she was autistic.
The model and TV star’s new BBC documentary, Unmasking My Autism, will air on Tuesday night and, ahead of the film, she made an appearance on BBC Morning Live.
When asked how her relationship with her three autistic children Penelope and Leo, 9, and Felicity, 7, has developed since receiving her own diagnosis last year, Christine, 34, explained that it was the ” best part” of your entire experience.
“I accept that we are all completely unique. The best part of the diagnosis was sitting down and telling them that they were autistic and that mom is autistic too.” We have our own little gang,’ she smiled.
Speak up: Christine McGuinness has revealed how she sat down and told her three children she was autistic
Raising awareness: Christine’s three children; Twins Penelope and Leo, 9, and Felicity, 7, whom she shares with her husband Paddy, also have autism.
Christine explained that she wanted to make her documentary to gain “a better understanding of women and girls and their diagnoses.”
She revealed that it was when she compared some of her own traits and behaviors to those of her children, who were diagnosed as young children, that she realized she needed to seek her own diagnosis.
“I was thinking that there must be some kind of genetic link (to autism),” he explained.
;I have a lot in common with the children, I always thought they were my children, I’m going to have things in common but I went and they gave me a diagnosis.’
‘The clarity you get from having that answer makes me feel less sorry for myself, for my way of thinking, for my way of being. I used to feel like a nuisance and still do sometimes, but now I understand who I am.’
He added that one of the women he meets in his documentary described her own experience of autism before diagnosis with the words “imagine you don’t show up in your own life.”
“Unfortunately, it’s quite common for autistic girls and women to have a lot of self-doubt and low self-esteem,” Christine noted.
“And when she said that it really hit me, imagine not showing up for the life of me, imagine not making the most of every day and every opportunity.”
Christine bravely talks about her harrowing childhood in her new BBC documentary.
The reality star was sexually abused from the ages of nine to 11 and raped as a teenager.
And Christine reveals that the trauma left her feeling suicidal and that she prayed every night that she wouldn’t wake up in the morning, on the show that will air on Wednesday.
“Just because it was so horrible, it was just horrible,” she says.
Christine highlights in her new documentary how the disorder can make people more vulnerable to sexual abuse.
Heartbreaking: Christine McGuinness bravely speaks out about being sexually abused as a child in her new BBC documentary, Unmasking My Autism
Abuse: The 34-year-old reality star was sexually abused from the age of nine to 11 by ‘someone close to her family’ and raped as a teenager
A 2022 study, an online survey that spoke to 225 people, suggests that nearly nine in 10 autistic women have been victims of “sexual violence,” reports the BBC.
Clinical director of the National Autism Society, Dr. Sarah Lister Book, says a large number of autistic women and girls report experiences of sexual assault, whether it is coercive, physical or sexual abuse.
“This is a serious and deeply concerning issue,” adds Dr. Brook.
Christine wants to see better education for autistic girls, especially when it comes to understanding consent.
“They need to make sure they fully understand what consent is, autistic girls generally want to fit in and people please and give in to peer pressure much more than a neurotypical girl,” she says. OK!.
“It is something that petrifies me as a mother of two girls and a boy. It’s scary. The more people who know that this could be a problem for them, the better they will be served. It shouldn’t happen to anyone.
Watch Christine McGuinness: Unmasking My Autism Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One and on BBC iPlayer.
