Gregg Wallace, 58, has spoken out about his son’s autism and the possibility that his age is a factor in why Sid, four, has the developmental disability.
The star spoke to The Times’ T2 about his son, who he has with his fourth wife Anna, 37, and detailed how Sid was diagnosed with autism last year and struggles to get an EHCP (an education, health and care plan) from the council.
Sid is non-verbal and it’s unknown if he’ll ever speak, but the Masterchef star admitted they’re “hoping” that they’ll see developments in the toddler.
Gregg was asked if he thought his age was related to Sid’s autism, as multiple studies published over the past decade have shown that older men and women are more likely than young people to have a child with autism.
When asked if he was concerned about the link between age and autism, he candidly said, “It could be. I don’t care. The blame is on God and little children. It won’t make it any better if we go: it’s my fault.’
His love: Gregg Wallace, 58, has spoken out about his son’s autism and the possibility that his age is a factor in why Sid, four, has the developmental disability
Gregg and Anna welcomed their first child – Gregg’s fourth – in May 2019. Gregg was married to Christine Wallace for less than a year in 1881, Denise Wallace from 1999 to 2004, Heidi Brown from 2011 to 2012, and married Anne-Marie in 2016.
Speaking in T2 about how he reacted to the diagnosis, he said, “You’re going through a period of near-grieving. Like, my God, I didn’t have the child I thought I had.”
Gregg stopped hosting Inside The Factory to spend more time with Sid and recently launched his own wellness and weight loss app.
Last year on Loose Women, Gregg revealed that he and Anna was only officially diagnosed at the age of three: ‘Syd has autism…
“He’s three, you can’t legally establish it in this country until they’re two and a half, but when we were about a year old, we knew we had some problems.”
Sweet: The star spoke to The Times’ T2 about his son, who he has with fourth wife Anna, 37, explaining how Sid was diagnosed with autism last year and is struggling to get an EHCP (an education, health and and care plan) of the municipality
‘Grief’: Speaking in T2 about how he reacted to the diagnosis, he said, ‘You’re going through a period of near-grieving. Like, my God, I don’t have the child I thought I had’
My Boy: Sid is non-verbal and it’s unknown if he’ll ever speak up, but the Masterchef star admitted they’re ‘hoping’ that they’ll see developments in totality
When asked by Coleen Nolan and Kaye Adams what the signs were, Gregg said, “For us, he didn’t answer by name, he didn’t play peek-a-boo.”
“He walked and ran around, but he has autism and he has something called global developmental delay. So he’s not talking.’
Gregg then sweetly added, “But he’s beautiful and he’s cuddly and he’s happy. And when he wants something, he takes your hand and takes you. Honestly, if you think you have a problem, go see someone.’
In 2014, findings published in the International Journal of Epidemiology suggested that fathers’ risk of having autistic children steadily increases as they get older.
Professor Brian Lee and his colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden analyzed data from 417,000 children born between 1984 and 2003.
They compared the age of the parents with other factors that could influence the risk of autism, such as family income, the parents’ psychiatric history and intellectual disability.
Professor Lee said: ‘The risk of having a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) had a more complicated relationship with age in women than in men, whose risk of fathering a child with ASD increased linearly with age over their lifetime. whole life.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, revealed that children of fathers over the age of 45 are three and a half times more likely to develop autism than children of men in their early 20s.
It also revealed that there was a 24-fold increased risk of bipolar disorder and a 13-fold high risk of ADHD in children born to older fathers.
Sweet: Gregg is pictured with his family
Speaking out: When Coleen Nolan and Kaye Adams asked what the signs were, Gregg said, “For us, he didn’t answer his name, he didn’t play peekaboo