Christine McGuinness confessed that she never ate a single school lunch and has struggled with an eating issue since she was a child.
Christine McGuinness: Unmasking My Autism, a BBC documentary in which she examines the relationship between her disability, her childhood eating disorder, adolescent sexual assault, and her marriage to Top Gear broadcaster Paddy McGuinness, opens up about her history.
The couple, who had three autistic children together, divorced last summer after 15 years of marriage.
Christine expresses her fear as a ‘very vulnerable’ single mom at one point in the documentary, eventually opening up about her traumatic experiences with sexual assault.
She has previously spoken about her eating condition and her fight with anorexia as an adult.
‘I grew up in Liverpool on a large council estate with my mom and two siblings, and I have really great recollections of my early upbringing,’ the Real Housewives of Cheshire actress recalls.
‘But certainly, back in the 90s there was no understanding of autism.’
Christine went on to talk about feeling like a ‘loner’ as a child, saying: ‘The thought of going into school everyday was just horrific. It was just the worst place for me to go.
‘When I had physical outbursts, that was when I just couldn’t control it.
‘I remember throwing chairs in the classroom, I remember pushing tables over, I remember screaming and shouting.
‘Then of course, lunchtimes again, the canteen in high school was huge – it was loud, and the queue would go all the way down the corridor.
‘I only ever did that once and then I never ate at school ever again.’
Christine continued: ‘From age 11, I didn’t eat at all. I never had periods, I remember my mum asked me about it one day, when I was 14 or 15, and I was like, “No not at all,” and she took me to see a doctor.
‘That’s when I was diagnosed with an eating disorder I suppose.’
Christine’s years of compulsive eating continued after she graduated from high school.
She went on to say that her food troubles are’sensory,’ causing her to struggle with diverse textures and odours, and that she now only eats ‘dry and beige’ foods.
Christine also goes back to the beginning of her anorexic fight in her memoirs A Beautiful Nightmare, stating that she originally had the disorder when she was eight years old, ‘and it was really awful for approximately ten years’.
After the pair moved in together, her comic husband Paddy helped her ‘gently’ adjust her eating habits, and she has been steadily recuperating since.
Christine McGuinness: Unmasking My Autism is available to watch on BBCiPlayer.
BEAT
If you suspect you, a family member or friend has an eating disorder, contact Beat on 0808 801 0677 or at help@beateatingdisorders.org.uk, for information and advice on the best way to get appropriate treatment