Entertainment
Gregg Wallace reveals son, 3, has been diagnosed with autism and is non-verbal-Charlotte Manning-Entertainment – Metro
Fans were pleased to see him speaking so positively about his son.
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MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace has spoken out on his son Sid’s recent diagnosis with autism for the first time.
Gregg, 57, shares his youngest child with wife Anne-Marie Sterpini, who is 21 years his junior.
During an appearance on Loose Women on Tuesday, the famous grocer revealed he spotted issues in Sid from around ‘a year old’.
This has led to the youngster being diagnosed with autism and global development delay, which he chatted about in detail to the panel.
Gregg explained: ‘He’s three, you can’t legally diagnose until you’re two and a half in this country
‘But we knew at about a year old we had some issues.’
Gregg appeared on Loose Women this lunchtime (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
When asked what signs he and Anne-Marie spotted, Gregg shared how Sid ‘wasn’t answering his name, and wasn’t playing peekaboo,’ despite being able to walk and run around.
The TV star continued: ‘He’s got something called global development delay, which means he is not speaking.
‘But he is lovely, he is cuddly… If he wants something, he grabs your hand.’
He encouraged parents to ‘go and see someone’ if they believed their child may have an issue.
Gregg revealed his youngest son’s diagnosis (Picture: Instagram)
‘If you’re not sure, keep knocking on doors, there are brilliant people out there who will help.
We did private stuff, local council stuff. We did both. I can’t tell you one is better than the other but they’ve all congratulated us on not being in denial,’ he added.
We can see development in him, he’s now making eye contact, he responds to his name.
Gregg went on to admit that: ‘It’s not what we would have chosen, but every little development is a major triumph.
Gregg with his wife Anne-Marie (Picture: Mike Lawn/REX)
The MasterChef host has been praised by viewers for chatting so openly about his son’s journey to diagnosis in such a positive way, and for shedding light on the topic.
One viewer shared: ‘@NoContextGregg_ Hi Gregg, just seen you in #LooseWomen my daughter was the same diagnosed with #Autism and delayed learning and non verbal until the age of 6, she is now 17 at college and is going great. Hope everything goes great with your son.’
Another viewer commented: ‘@loosewomen lovely to see Gregg Wallace today! Really good tips regarding Autism. Thank you.’
‘#Greggwallace you could have been describing my 4yo daughter. She too is non verbal with suspected autism and has started to make progress with eye contact and responding to her name. You’re absolutely right, each milestone is a massive achievement #LooseWomen,’ another weighed in.
Someone else wrote: ‘@loosewomen Thank you Gregg Wallace for speaking so positively about your son and Autism.’
He first shared his suspicions his son might be autistic back in December last year, during an interview with The Sunday Times.
He added: ‘We don’t know what it is. We suspect autism but neither of us is medically qualified.
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‘He’s a very happy boy. Very confident. We love him dearly. We’re not overly concerned. He’s very young.’
He added: ‘So we are optimistic. We’re not scared. We’re not nervous. We’re also excited, because we don’t know how he’s going to develop. We have no idea. He could be seriously into something — we don’t know what it is yet.’
Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV.
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