Christine McGuinness opens up about kids' autism, revealing she 'blamed herself' before their diagnosis
28 May 2020, 10:54
Christine McGuinness' heartbreak as parent complains about her autistic twins
Christine McGuinness is mum to twins Leo and Penelope, six, and four-year-old Felicity, who are all autistic.
Christine McGuinness has spoken out about her childrens' autism in a candid interview, revealing that she 'blamed herself' when they first started showing signs.
The 32-year-old Real Housewives of Cheshire star and her husband Paddy McGuinness share three kids together, who are all autistic. Twins Leo and Penelope, six, were diagnosed when they were three years old.
Read more: Christine McGuinness begs people to stop stockpiling food and think of her autistic kids
Opening up about the time before their diagnosis on MTV's Nappy Days podcast, Christine said: "You wing it at first, you make mistakes but that's just natural.
"But I didn't know they had autism at first because I didn't know anything about autism.
"They didn't speak. They were non-verbal, they'd walk on their tiptoes, they were sensitive to sound and light.
Read more: Christine McGuinness admits parenting three autistic children makes marriage to Paddy 'a struggle'
"So if there was a sudden noise, they would jump out their skin. But I thought they were just softies.
"I would think maybe it's because they are twins, two of them, or that I would not be giving them enough attention. So I blamed myself."
Christine also revealed that the fact Paddy works away a lot fuelled the belief that she was to blame, adding: "They were with me permanently – my husband works away a lot so I thought maybe it was me and that I hadn't taught them very well.
"They also never went to nursery or play groups so I blamed myself for them having no social skills.
"I thought that it was down to me doing a rubbish job as a mother."
Christine recently opened up about the struggles that the family have face during lockdown, saying: "This is huge, this is massive, it's probably the biggest change any of us are going to experience. It's affecting all three of my children and therefore us as a family.
"It's heartbreaking to see what it's doing to them but as a parent, as a mum, as a carer all I can do is be there for them, love them, help them, support them as any mum would.
"They struggle with their speech, their communication, their eye contact, their food, their sensory awareness, and all of the things they've struggled with that we've spent years and years trying to help them with, now it feels we've gone back two years."
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