2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Matthew Davies)
Christine McGuinness, who has three children with ex-husband Paddy McGuinness, opened up about a heartbreaking moment she faced she went to a supermarket to buy a particular food item Christine McGuinness opened up about a heartbreaking moment from her past when she broke down in tears while shopping. The former Miss Liverpool model recently starred in Celebrity Masterchef, but was sadly knocked out in the first round. The 36-year-old has been open about her struggles with food in the past, even claiming she "feared moving in" with ex Paddy McGuinness because of her anorexia.
And in her book, ' Christine McGuinness: A Beautiful Nightmare ', she also revealed the "eye-opener" she faced when it came to food with her twins. Christine has three children, Felicity and twins Leo and Penelope, all of whom have autism and it took her a long time to leave her kids at nursery. She explained that she had to take them home for lunch as they wouldn't eat in school, but it would be one particular food item that would lead to the difficult situation in a supermarket .
Christine wrote: "I remember on one occasion, I'd dropped them off at nursery. At this stage, I'd never even left the car park. At the time, Leo would only eat this one type of butter, and we'd run out.
I was terrified that if I didn't get this butter, Leo wouldn't eat his toast. "And it's true he wouldn't have. For the first time, I left the twins at nursery while I drove to three different supermarkets on the hunt for this bl***y butter.
I couldn't find it anywhere. I cried my eyes out in the middle of the supermarket. "Now when I think back, alarm bells should have been ringing.
That's not normal. But for me, I was just doing anything I could to get my child to eat and I'd do it again tomorrow if I had to. " Over time, Christine felt more comfortable talking to staff about the twins' speech and the difficulties they faced in understanding their own names.
She described how other kids would run into their parents' arms, but the twins "seemed oblivious to the rest of the world". Christine said they'd spin objects, do things they did "as tiny babies", such as drinking bottles and wearing nappies, and wouldn't play with certain toys, like Play-Doh, sand or slime. Christine didn't view her children's behaviour as "any different", but she started noticing that when the kids were in nursery, they would play with toys differently.
She said other children play with a toy car by rolling it along the floor, but Leo and Penelope would spin the wheel repeatedly or examine how the car had been made. She wrote: "And before I knew it, we were sitting around a table with eight different adults from different sectors of child support, preparing them to go and see this paediatrician. Still, no one said along the way, 'The reason we're doing this is because they're autistic'.
" In 2021, Christine, who is a campaigner for autism awareness, revealed she had also been diagnosed with the condition. The TV personality received her diagnosis after being invited with her ex-husband, comedian Paddy McGuinness, to meet Sir Simon Baron-Cohen at Cambridge University . Christine scored 36 out of 50 on an AQ (Autism Spectrum Quotient) questionnaire, a self-administered test that measures the degree to which people display traits of autism, according to Embrace Autism .
The former Real Housewives of Cheshire star and her TV presenter husband split up in 2022 after 11 years but they continue to live together in their Cheshire home and remain on friendly terms..
