Paddy McGuinness shares ‘upsetting’ moment his autistic children were snubbed

PADDY McGuinness has revealed his “heartbreak” over his autistic children being snubbed.

The 48-year-old presenter said it was “upsetting” that their young kids are judged by their peers.

GettyPaddy McGuiness shares ‘heartbreak’ over autistic kids being snubbed[/caption]

InstagramThe doting dad said it’s happened a ‘million times’[/caption]

The Bolton-born star revealed the added challenges of being a parent as their three children, eight-year-old twins Leo and Penelope, and five-year-old Felicity, all have autism. 

“It’s upsetting as a parent when your child goes up to another child in that lovely way and introduces themselves, which is the most normal, nice thing to do ever,” the Top Gear host said on Table Talk podcast.

“But most kids will look at that as: ‘What the hell is going on here?’ They don’t understand it. As a parent, it’s heartbreaking.”

The TV host – who have been married to Christine since 2011- said that this has happened a “million times” but praised his kids and said that he is “glad his kids still do it”.

Paddy and Christine, 32, helped to provide awareness of autism with their documentary Paddy And Christine McGuinness: Our Family And Autism last year.

The Take Me Out star broke down in tears as he described how his autistic kids had “won the lottery” by getting a mum like Christine, who was diagnosed with autism herself.

With tears streaming down his face Paddy says: “Our kids dropped the lottery with Christine because they couldn’t wish for a better mum.”

He also believes his children will never be able to leave home.

He said: “I think my kids will probably be at home with me for ever. It’s great now. I’m here and Christine’s here.

“But eventually there comes a point when we’re not here any more and I worry about people taking advantage of them. We’re just putting everything in place for them and trying to get them as independent as they can be.”

When the twins were first born, he said: “You’ve got double nappies, double teething, double sleepless nights, double everything, and you’ve nothing to compare anything with.” 

He and Christine also didn’t have many friends with children of a similar age, he continued, “so we had nothing to gauge anything against”.

Paddy also reveals how the weight of it all made him spiral into a depression that saw him end up in therapy.

He says: “It chipped away at me, with all of the things you have to do, things you have to deal with as a parent of children with autism. It dawned on me that, that’s it, that’s it for ever. There’s no ‘they’ll get better as the years go on’.

“In that whole haze of clinical depression, if you’d have given me the chance to take autism away from my children, I would have said ‘yeah’ but autism is part of who they are, so why would I want to take away a part of my children which I love?

“I wasn’t unhappy for me. I was just stressed with the whole thing but I worked my backside off because I thought the only thing I can do for these kids is give them a life where they’re as comfortable as possible.

“What I should have been think­­ing is I need to give them as much love as I can. It’s more about having time with them. I realise that now.”

The Mega AgencyThe Top Gear host said his kids ‘won the lottery’ by getting a mum like Christine[/caption]

Refer to CaptionPaddy said his kids may never leave home[/caption]