Paddy McGuinness reveals his mental state 9 months after split from wife Christine
LONDON, ENGLAND: ‘Top Gear’ host Paddy McGuinness, 49, recently opened up about his ‘homesickness’ after splitting from his wife, Christine, 35, in July 2022. The couple who had been married for 11 years before separating last July share three children together — Penelope, Felicity, and Leo, where all three of them have been diagnosed with autism.
In an interview given to the Sunday version of a well-reputed news agency, the 'Tempting Fortune' host said, "I've always had a sort of rule what I stick by where I never do more than nine days anywhere because I just like being at home”.
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"I think naturally you get homesick," the father-of-three informed The Sun. The TV personality and his wife maintained the stance that even after their split, the estranged couple have decided to stay in the same house to take care of their three children who are on the autistic spectrum.
How did Paddy manage his homesickness while filming ‘Tempting Fortune’?
In light of this recent revelation, one might wonder if shooting for ‘Tempting Fortune’ in the wild terrains of South Africa might have proven difficult for him. However, he managed it just fine, as he said about the shoot, “I did this in two different stints. So I’d go out for five days, come back and then towards the end I went out for another, I think, four days”.
The ‘Take Me Out’ host further added about the psychological effects one has while filming in their home country, "So it wasn’t too bad, really. I’ve done longer. When I used to do Take Me Out, for instance, you think a bit differently because you’re in the UK, so psychologically it isn’t that bad, but Take Me Out used to take a week”.
However, he also highlighted the importance of mobile phones in this century, "If I have to work away, I’ve got a phone. If you work in a job where you might be away for a couple of days a week, or whatever it is, in this day and age it’s a small world because you’ve got Zoom and phones and Whatsapps and everything else, so you still kind of don’t feel you’re away as such”.
How did Paddy McGuinness battle with depression?
The ‘Question of Sport’ star battles not only with ‘homesickness’ but also with depression. In an interview given to Aimee Fuller on ‘Monday Mile’ podcast, the television personality revealed, “So Christine and a few of my family members would say stuff and ask if I was okay and I would think, 'Why are they always asking me that?'” Delineating the symptoms of depression, he further added, "But obviously you can't see it yourself, it's in your head, it's not like you've got a limp where people can spot it and you can spot."
He had also ended up 'resenting' his job as he could not manage to put a smile on his face, "I've never been that much of a person losing my temper but I could feel myself in certain situations getting wound up quicker and I just thought that's not me”. "I wasn't going around throwing cups at the bloody wall and shouting but I could feel myself feeling angry straight away and I shouldn't be feeling that,” told the star.
Talking about how therapy helped him battle depression, McGuinness said, "If you try therapy and that doesn't work for you, it doesn't mean that all therapy won't, just keep going until you find that one." "It might take you bloody six times but it's worth it,” McGuinness said before adding that his clinical depression has been relieved by therapy sessions that felt like bouts with Tyson Fury, reports Mirror.
'We’re actually not like any other family'
McGuinness's wife, 'Real Housewives of Cheshire' star Christine said on Heart FM's 'No Filter' earlier this week, "We’re not actually like any other family I know," before adding, "I love the way we are, I try not to compare myself to any other family because we're actually not like any other family that I know". The mother-of-three mentioned, "I'm comfortable and I embrace our family the way we are, and I love our differences," before adding, "Each and every family is unique anyway but ours is just one that I've never seen on any social media platform before and I'm quite proud of that."