Alison Hammond reveals son had a tic which she ‘ignored’: ‘We never discussed it’-Sabrina Barr-Entertainment – Metro

Alison Hammond has shared that her son used to have a tic, which while she noticed, they never spoke about.

Tonight on Channel 4, Scarlett Moffatt is hosting a documentary called Britain’s Tourette’s Mystery: Scarlett Moffatt Investigates, exploring a drastic rise in tics among teenagers over the past 18 months.

On Tuesday’s This Morning, the former Gogglebox star joined Alison, 47, and Dermot O’Leary, 49, in the ITV studio to discuss the programme, opening up about the tics she experienced when she was younger.

While discussing the subject matter, Dermot brought up statistics outlining how childhood tics typically start when children are between five to seven years old, with boys more likely to be affected on a ratio of 4:1.

‘A lot of people grow out of them, do they?’ he asked, as Scarlett, 31, recalled how that was the case for hers.

‘My son had a tic, a little tic, and I just ignored it and we never discussed it,’ Alison then revealed, referring to her teenage son Aiden Hammond.

Alison Hammond on This Morning (Picture: ITV)

Scarlett Moffatt on This Morning (Picture: ITV)

‘And then I just noticed as he got older it just went. It was like a facial tic like you,’ she added, gesturing towards Scarlett. ‘He used to just turn his head to the side.’

Tics, which are commonly associated with Tourette’s syndrome, ‘are fast, repetitive muscle movements that result in sudden and difficult to control body jolts or sounds’, the NHS states.

Alison and her son Hammond attended the Bafta TV awards together in May this year (Picture: David M. Benett/Getty Images)

The NHS adds that the term ‘Tourette’s syndrome’ is used when tics have ‘lasted for more than a year’.

Ahead of her documentary airing tonight, Scarlett shared how she experienced ‘sudden onset tics’ when she was younger and ‘didn’t really know much about it’.

‘It was the late 90s/early noughties when I developed it and the only sort of Tourette’s that had been in the media at that point was the swearing attacks that we know.

‘So when I went to the doctors with this, and other ailments, my mam and dad didn’t really quite understand what was going on and I remember that being quite a scary time not being able to control my own body.’

Scarlett felt the urge to investigate tics further with her programme when she began seeing articles and TikTok videos ‘about loads of young girls who were around my age when I got it’.

This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV. Britain’s Tourette’s Mystery: Scarlett Moffatt Investigates airs tonight at 10pm on Channel 4 and All 4.

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