Christine McGuinness opens up about raising children with autism in lockdown and her mum's cancer diagnosis

Christine McGuinness joined the Loose Women to share her experience of raising three children with autism in the middle of a global pandemic.

"It's been a rollercoaster," she told the panel. "It started off extremely difficult, for everyone it was a massive shock. Our kids are autistic and they struggle with shock. All of these differences were suddenly thrown at them, the school was closed, not allowed friends or family over, which we used to do, at weekends we couldn’t go to the park."

"With three children that struggle with change anyway and don’t really understand an awful lot, that was extremely difficult, for them to suddenly change overnight," she continued. "It's quite sad really that they now accept it’s normal to stay in."

However, the pandemic did mean Christine and husband Paddy had more time to spend with their children too. "We’ve had some magical, magical moments. And overall they’re happy, they’re healthy and they’re doing absolutely amazing and I love them to bits and I’m dead proud," she said.

Christine also opened up about the challenges of homeschooling and her mum's breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.

"She's doing this when she should have friends and family around her," she said. "She's just getting through it and she's laughing and she's making jokes about she's got no hair on her eyebrows and she’s just making fun with it. That’s definitely where I get my strength from."

Watch the chat in the video above and catch the episode on the ITV Hub.

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