Matt Lucas reveals autism diagnosis and opens up about living with the condition
Matt Lucas has revealed he has been diagnosed with autism as he spoke about living with the condition for the first time ever.
The Little Britain star didn’t disclose when he had been diagnosed but admitted that he had kept it secret from the public.
The 52-year-old actor and comedian recently appeared on Romesh Ranganathan on BBC Radio 2, where he talked about how it impacted his life and how he handled his condition.
“I've never, ever spoken about this publicly, but I'm autistic,” he shared.
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“So I enjoy periods of being very sociable, like you are in the theatre, and then I also enjoy those periods of solitude where I can just write on my own.”
Romesh then asked: “Do you find that you need to recharge each battery, like you’re kind of flitting between those two things?”
To which Lucas replied: “Yeah, and so on my days off, you know you do theatre six days a week, and on my day off, apart from resting and resting my voice and all of that, on my day off I like not to see people and give them a break from me, but just to have that recharge time is quite important to me.”
While Lucas, who rose to fame alongside David Walliams, kept his autism diagnosis quiet, he has previously spoken out about his health and his decision to lose weight, saying he trimmed down from an XXXL to a medium.
Speaking back in 2022, he opened up about how his dad’s sudden death at just 52 had made him think about his own health.
Talking to Gabby Logan on her podcast, he said: “I'm 48, my dad died when he was 52 very suddenly, his dad died I think at 56 so I was looking at the law of averages here.
“I was very big and I was getting bigger in the pandemic actually.”
He said he had become inactive, stopped going and began overeating.
He continued: “I was so big I couldn't really fit on screen anymore.
“I've gone from maybe an XXL, sometimes I was an XXXL, down to a medium now I think. Although medium is sometimes big on me and sometimes it's small on me.”
He went on to say that his next goal was to get fitter and take up exercise.
What is autism?
Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a difference in how your brain develops that affects how you see and experience the world, according to the NHS.
It is often referred to as a type of neurodivergence and can affect how you communicate with people and understand them, and how people understand you as well as how you think, learn and pay attention to things and how you respond to light, sounds, smells, tastes and touch.
It’s not known what causes autism.
The NHS says, it’s something you’re born with that has no treatment or cure, but there are ways of managing it and support available.
The support an autistic person needs may change over time or if they are in different situations.
Topics: Celebrity, Health, UK News, TV and Film
Claire Reid