Presenter Paddy McGuinness has spoken out about the difficulties of raising children with autism.
The Take Me Out fave, 45, is dad to twins Penelope and Leo, six, and Felicity, three, with wife Christine McGuinness.
When the twins were three-and-a-half years old, they were referred to a pediatrician because they were both delayed in speaking – and that’s when the pair were told they had autism.
Speaking about the twins to the Mirror, he said: “With autism you can feel as though you’re on your own, the world is against you. You’re like, ‘God, everyone else has got it easy’. There’s lots of things we can’t do – we can’t even go on a family holiday together.
“But when you start speaking about it, other people get in touch and say, ‘I thought it was just me, I’m in that position too’.
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“Someone who’s considered to be a celebrity, who has a fantastic life and a good job and everything else – if they’re struggling, what chance has everyone else got? I want to put it out there, show there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Paddy also opened up about what he’s like as a parent, saying he takes inspiration from how his dad raised him.
He added that he sometimes gets in “situations” with his children when they are naughty or break things, and he just “thinks back” to his own dad, who he says never gave him a hard time” when he got out of line.
Paddy said he wants to be the same with his own kids, as parents don’t have to “rule with a rod of iron”.
Paddy’s wife Christine has also been vocal about raising kids with autism, revealing the moment they were told when the twins were three and a half.
“It was just this massive shock, I was devastated and heartbroken, it was like somebody saying there was something wrong with my children,” she said.
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“We didn’t know too much about autism, and had just heard the negative parts. It was a lack of knowledge on our part. I thought it can’t be my children, they’re talking about someone else, my children are fabulous and perfect and how can they have autism when that apparently isn’t those things?
Model Christine added to the MEN: “But knowing my children and they both have autism, I still find them absolutely perfect and amazing. The diagnosis hasn’t changed that at all, but it has helped us explain their behaviour to other people.”
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