British TV personality Anne Hegerty discusses her Aspergers

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18 Aug 2017, 1:48 am

It was a relief': Anne Hegerty speaks candidly about the autism diagnosis that left her on benefits with bailiffs at the door before she joined The Chase

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The Chase's Anne Hegerty has opened up about the secret battle with autism that left her on benefits and with bailiffs knocking on her door.

Anne, 59, from Wood Green, North London, was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, which is a form of autism, in 2005 after seeing a TV programme about autism and realising she had all of the symptoms.

It took two years for Anne, who is a Chaser on the ITV quiz show, to get a diagnosis for the syndrome, which ended up costing her a job in proofreading.

One of the symptoms of autism is having the inability to multi-task, which led to Anne under-performing at work and eventually losing her job.

Appearing on ITV's Loose Women today, Anne admitted she went on benefits after two bailiffs arrived within ten minutes of each other on New Year's Day 2008.

Anne said: 'For a long time I didn't know what the problem was but I realised I had trouble multi-tasking.'

'Around about 2003 I happened to see a TV programme about little autistic boys and something about it just kind of clicked. I just thought "There is something about the way those boys are behaving that reminds me of me now and of me when I was a child."

'I started researching Asperger's syndrome and high functioning autism,' she added.

Anne visited a doctor who specialises in people with special needs and told her she had Asperger's.

She said: 'There was a relief because it's a syndrome so it's a whole load of various behaviours. The only thing they ever had in common was that they were all things that I did, even more as a child, and they were all things that nobody could explain why I did and that nobody else did.

'What they also were were things that were listed in this diagnostic criteria for autism.'

Anne had left her journalism career and was working as a proof-reader before her diagnosis, and it was in this job where she realised she was struggling with mulit-tasking.

Despite her relief at the diagnosis, Anne admitted this didn't stop her problems at work, making her a 'terrible nuisance' to her bosses.

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B19
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18 Aug 2017, 2:51 am

Anne particularly, and also another of the chasers, Mark Labbett, always struck me as probably on the spectrum. He used to be a maths teacher I think, and I love the slightly unusual sense of humour that these two chasers have. Also the "Sinhaman" has a lovely personality though he seems just a nice NT to me, as do the barrister and the newbie woman whose name I can't recall.

PS: If anyone is wondering, The Chase is a quiz programme made in England by ITV where teams of ordinary people go up against very experienced quizmasters (who have won international quizes, mastermind and the like) to try to beat the chasers and win money.

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18 Aug 2017, 4:39 am

Thank you for sharing. It still comes as shock sometimes how very many of us there are.

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18 Aug 2017, 4:42 am

I always liked Anne. Good for her. I like the other chasers too. I think the Sinnerman gets some questions wrong on purpose. I think they all do, but him especially, which is nice.

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18 Aug 2017, 7:53 am

I'm going to have to look her up because I have never watched this show. But good for her going public with HFA which is still so poorly understood and even disbelieved generally. It's good for greater awareness, for people to see public figures coming out and explaining they are on the spectrum.

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18 Aug 2017, 8:55 am

Never seen this show, since I'm American, but I do like programs of this type. Anne Hegerty sounds like a very interesting person.

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18 Aug 2017, 9:07 am

Anne "the Governess" Hegerty... she is superb!

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18 Aug 2017, 1:40 pm

IstominFan wrote:

Never seen this show, since I'm American, but I do like programs of this type. Anne Hegerty sounds like a very interesting person.

There's an American version but only Mark appears on it where the UK version has a roster of chasers of which Anne is one. However I believe she was on the Australian version of the show.

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18 Aug 2017, 1:44 pm

It's good that public awareness is being spread this way.

It also goes to show that we have a long way to go. Since, after she disclosed her Asperger's, she was dismissed from her job as a proofreader.

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18 Aug 2017, 2:08 pm

I've noticed that out of the 5 chasers, Mark answers questions much faster than the others, (Anne seems to be the second fastest or maybe second equal with the barrister Sean)

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18 Aug 2017, 3:04 pm

Sorry to digress , it's all I seem to do on here but some of the funniest outtakes on TV of from The Chase when Bradley Walsh can't keep it together over silly answers or peoples names.

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18 Aug 2017, 3:09 pm

He does a great job, great sense of humour, always respectful to (all) of the contestants, and very personable - the right person in the right role. It works!

Who is your favourite chaser SF?

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18 Aug 2017, 4:20 pm

B19 wrote:

He does a great job, great sense of humour, always respectful to (all) of the contestants, and very personable - the right person in the right role. It works!

Who is your favourite chaser SF?

Bradley Walsh is awesome when he loses it , such un-professionalism but so human at the same time.

I haven't watched many episodes so have only seen 3 chasers ( Mark , Ann & Shaun )

I think Mark is my favourite , Shaun appears to be the funniest and Ann seems too stern for me but this is judged on very limited watching.

Edit: Incidentally I saw a news item once and Mark was an eyewitness or commented on it and it was so weird seeming him out of context.

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18 Aug 2017, 4:26 pm

I noticed in quite a few episodes that Walsh asked questions to the Chasers a lot faster, which was unfair to the contestants.

Walsh also presented the Wheel of Fortune.

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29 Sep 2018, 5:54 pm

ITV Loose Women: Viewers praise Anne Hegerty as The Chase star opens up on Aspergers

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Anne, 60, appeared on Loose Women alongside Ruth Langsford, 58, Jane Moore, 56, Nadia Sawalha, 53, and guest panelist Mel B, 43.

The Chase star opened up about when she found out she was living with Aspergers in 2005, after she revealed she thought she had the condition two years earlier.

Known for her harsh and straight forward approach on the ITV quiz show, Anne dropped the charade and opened up about her personal life.

Viewers of the show took to Twitter to praise The Governess for being so revealing about her condition which may help others living with Aspergers.

As well as viewers praising The Chase star, The National Autistic Society thanked Anne for speaking about Autism Hour which involves shops turning off music and dimming the lights so people with autism are able to shop without distractions.

Taking to Twitter, the society wrote: “Thank you @anne_hegerty for talking about our #AutismHour campaign!”

Anne said that she started to think she had Aspergers after watching a TV documentary about Autism.

“Just the tone of voice rang tones with me,” the TV star admitted as she spoke about the situation involving a young boy speaking to his mother.

Revealing how the condition affects her life, Anne said: “I can get very stroppy if I’m tired.”

“The difficult bit really is just simply keeping myself organised,” Anne explained as she spoke about how she deals with her Aspergers around The Chase responsibilities.

“It would be a lot easier if I lived down here,” Anne revealed as she commutes to the Elstree studios to record the quiz show.

Admitting the difficulties with prioritising, Anne said: “A lot of other stuff doesn’t get dealt with or gets dealt with very late.”

The Governess star also confessed that although she lives on her own, she never feels lonely and enjoys the independent lifestyle.

“I’ve literary never in my life felt lonely.

“The most boring thing is to be with people who never shut up,” Anne said as the audience and panelists laughed.

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29 Sep 2018, 6:26 pm

She visited my city down here for a week last month, and also used her interviews to spread awareness and dispel myths. She's marvellous.

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