Christine McGuinness made Celebrity Hunted history last night when she evaded capture from the hunters and became the first female star to win. On the run with Blue’s Duncan James throughout the Channel 4 reality series, the 36 year old documentary-maker reveals the experience has changed her life for the better and has given her a new sense of confidence. Christine, who was diagnosed with autism in 2021, says, “The best thing from it was realising that actually I can do more than I think I can.
“If I'm with the right person and someone understanding and caring, I'm a lot more capable than I think. I doubt myself, I preempt a lot, and I probably put myself down more than I should. I realised that on the run that sometimes I'm just too hard on myself. But I don’t think I’ve done anything that’s made me feel so proud. I’m a mum of three autistic children and I want them growing up knowing nothing is going to hold them back. I definitely go for things a lot more now.”
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Getty Images)Christine shares children - twins Leo and Penelope, 11, and eight year old Felicity - all who are autistic, with former husband and comic Paddy McGuinness. She has been navigating single life since her split from the presenter in 2022 and her later in life autism diagnosis, and utilised the time away from her brood filming Hunted to work out what she wants next in life.
“It was just the best time,” she says. “It just really gave me that power to keep thinking, ‘It's never too late to get a new job, to get a new hobby, to make new friends, to start a new relationship.’ I realised all that whilst I was out there because I wasn't mummy for a while. It gave me time to actually think, ‘OK, what do I want to do?’ It was amazing.”
The series was filmed in aid of Stand Up To Cancer - a charity close to Christine’s heart, as her mum Joanne is still being treated for breast cancer. In fact, as an avid campaigner, the former model is often inundated with messages, largely by other autistic people, who have been moved by her honesty about the symptoms of the condition.
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Channel 4)She says, “I get messages pretty much every single day on social media, mainly women watching the show and they'll open up and just say, ‘Thank you so much for sharing, because I felt like I was being dramatic or sensitive.’ I do get lovely messages just saying thank you for letting us feel like we can be ourselves. And it's crazy because I feel like I should thank everyone else because if I hadn't have got those nice messages after I first spoke about my autism and for it to feel acceptable for me to do what I’m doing, I don’t know if I would have carried on. So I need to thank everybody else.”
Thanks to the experience of the show, Christine now feels like she can take on the world. “I would be open-minded to doing so much stuff now,” she tells Mirror. “Knowing that I'm going to face challenges wherever it may be. There's always something. But I just think right now, especially after Celebrity Hunted and knowing how much I've got from doing it, I wouldn't be able to say no to something else, even if it was scary.”
English (US) ·