´I'd pray that I wouldn't wake up in the morning'

Christine McGuinness looks to the future after her troubled past

- JEN PHARO

As a teenager, Christine McGuinness was sexually abused, developed an eating disorder and spent her nights praying she wouldn’t wake up in the morning.

Now in her new BBC documentary, Christine McGuinness: Unmasking My Autism, the star has discovered her story isn’t that unusual among women with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Since she was diagnosed aged 33, Christine’s life has changed for the better, but she thinks an earlier diagnosis could have saved her from the turbulence of her teen years.

On the show, Christine unearths some shocking stories about what it means to have autism. One of the starkest statistics she encounters is a study which found autistic women are 13 times more likely to take their own lives than neurotypical women.

Autistic women are also more frequently victims of sexual and domestic abuse and suffer with eating disorders.

Christine developed an eating disorder at high school and was sexually abused by a family friend from the age of nine to 13, before being raped by a boy from her school. “I had been sexually abused. I was raped. I’d pray every night that I wouldn’t wake up in the morning – it was so awful,” reveals Christine.

Now the star wants to shine a light on the darkness and explore ways to help girls and women suffering from autism. “I want my children to grow up in a world that understands, includes and accepts them,” says Christine, whose three children – twins Leo and Penelope, nine, and Felicity, seven – have autism. “But it’s not just for my children. This is for all children.”