Anne Hegerty who was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in 2003 has recently opened up with her battle with autism. Her encyclopedic brain has amazed and entertained the viewers so far.
She is currently in the I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here jungle and she has been speaking about her condition on the show. She has struggled with adapting to jungle life and her new surroundings which is due to a developmental disorder which is based on social interaction and restrictive repetitive behaviour.
She told her campmates that she was struggling with settling in, 24 hours after entering the jungle. “I’ve started to thinking I think I can sort of see my way ahead” she explained.”’It’s also an autistic thing when you’re trying to work out what to do.”
“I know one of the characteristics of a lot of autistic people is not picking up on social cues,’ her campmate Rita Simons said. “You don’t seem to have that. You don’t at all.”
“Yeah I’m actually perfectly happy for the rest of you to be building the fire and boiling water but then I just sort of think come on Anne pull your weight.” Anne replied.
She was anxious about going into the jungle as she thought there would be too many people and she might struggle to fit in. But so far the campmates and the producers have been looking out for Annes Welfare.
Rita admitted she could understand how difficult it must be for Anne to cope with such a drastic change in her immediate surroundings. “I had read about Anne’s autism and of course she’s sitting trying to process all these new surrounding.” she said.
“I get it completely. She’s trying to figure out what the hell she’s doing here and how to move forward and she’s obviously started to get a bit of routine now because she’s happier.”
She added, “I’m glad she’s opened up about it because then she can say, look I’m just having one of my moments because she’s just got such a lovely nature and I think people don’t realise that because she plays with alter ego that like meaney (as The Governess).”
The 60 year old insisted she was happy to discuss her condition, but only if someone else brought it up in conversation. She is famous for being a Chaser on the ITV gameshow The Chase, hosted by Bradley Walsh. She said before she entered that “I will be going in as me. I am different to my Chase persona, The Governess. I will be more nervous than her!”
Since being in the jungle she has received a lot of positive support on social media and she was sent a touching thank you letter from an 11 year old boy named Joseph with autism.
Anne revealed that she didn’t realise that she was autistic until she was older “It wasn’t until 2003, when I was 45.” Anne confirmed. She doesn’t let anyone into her home because its very unorganised and she doesn’t like going on holidays and she prefers things to be quiet. These are some of her lifestyle choices due to her condition. It has also led to her misreading signals from love interests but it has helped her quiz knowledge.
It has also been the reason as to why she lost a job in proofreading as she didn’t have the ability to multitask which lead to her under-performing. She applied for The Chase with help from a social worker and she has been known as ‘The Governess’ since 2010.
She said on the show: “When you’ve grown up always knowing that there’s something that seemed to be different about you from most people and not being able to understand until my mid-forties that what we were talking about here was autism, I’ve had to learn an awful let about myself and what I can and can’t do and what I can or can’t cope with.”