Christine McGuinness has revealed that she stayed in her marriage to TV presenter Paddy because it was "safe" and she "doesn’t like change" which she realised after being diagnosed with autism. The former Real Housewives of Cheshire star, 34, announced that she had split from Top Gear and Question of Sport host Paddy, 49, last July.
The author and autism ambassador is fronting a new BBC One documentary Christine McGuinness: Unmasking My Autism, which sees her uncover the issue of women and girls going undiagnosed and she discusses her marriage to Paddy. The couple married in 2011 and they have a daughter Felicity, six, and nine-year-old twins Leo and Penelope who all have autism.
Their split came months after their BBC documentary Our Family And Autism which shone a light on Christine and her three children’s autism diagnosis. Christine said: “I didn’t want my family to ever fall apart and that’s why I stayed married. As an autistic woman, I like to stay where I’m comfortable, I like things to stay the same.
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“I understand myself better now because that’s where I was comfortable just knowing that it was me, Patrick and the children – but sometimes change has to happen. You just have to deal with it in the best way possible.”
Christine said when she first met Paddy he felt “very safe” and she stayed in that relationship for 15 years. In the documentary, she said: “I know I’ve stayed in a place where I was probably unhappy because it was safe and I don’t like change and ultimately I wanted to keep my family together.”
Since learning of her diagnosis, Christine said she set out on a personal mission to figure out her identity. She said: “I wanted to be the perfect wife and the perfect mum. I insisted on doing absolutely everything.
“I’m trying to not people please as much, which is hard because that’s just naturally me. I hate the thought of upsetting anyone, it really upsets me, I feel it a lot. I’m trying to say yes to more opportunities that scare me because I want to enjoy life and I want to live and I want to do more, I want to experience more.
“But also say no to things that I don’t want to do. I accept myself more. I’m a lot less apologetic about myself now. I’m proud of myself and I’m happy with where I am right now.”
The BBC documentary will see Christine meet a group of autistic mothers, which she said for the first time in her life made her feel like she didn’t need to “fit in."
She also cleared her wardrobe of all the clothes she did not like to wear, which she had described as “the power of pretending." She said: “I had a wardrobe for clothes that I would wear at home, a wardrobe for clothes that I would wear on social media, and a wardrobe for clothes that I would wear on TV, and all of them were completely different.
“It was like three different people lived in that wardrobe, and I didn’t know which one I was. I had clothes that I would never actually wear for myself, that felt good.
“I’m not going to try and dress like how I think I’m supposed to turn up, I’m just going to wear the outfits that I’m comfortable in and that I like.” Christine McGuinness: Unmasking My Autism airs on March 15 at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
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