Trivia titan Anne Hegerty can regularly be seen dominating with her knowledge on ITV’s The Chase and has gained a loyal following of fans.
But a stint in the Australian jungle for I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! in 2018 seems to have given her even more of a taste for the outdoors and life away from her quiz seat.
Anne’s latest TV adventure will see her join forces again with fellow Chase stars Shaun Wallace and Mark Labbett in the ITV show The Chasers Road Trip, as they travel the world to uncover the cognitive abilities of animal, children and artificial intelligence.
Although we’re used to The Governess’ hard exterior and sharp mind, it’s not often we get to hear about her life away from quiz shows.
The first time the nation were able to understand more about her as a person was when she appeared on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
The loveable Anne unknowingly became a role model for many people after being frank about her autism diagnosis – something which would eventually go on to save a man’s life.
Chase star Anne Hegerty didn’t know she had autism until she was an adult (Image: ITV)
But Anne has only known about her autism diagnosis for 15 years, which meant she had a difficult childhood.
After appearing on I’m A Celeb, she opened up about her childhood on White Wine Question Time, giving an even deeper insight into her life.
She explained to podcast host Kate Thornton that she didn’t have “the happiest childhood”.
Anne believes if she had known about her autism earlier she could have “explained to myself why I did certain things that nobody could make any sense of”, she said.
Chase star Anne on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! (Image: Supplied by WENN)
One of the reasons she had such an unhappy childhood was that her mother didn’t understand her.
She explained: “She was an affectionate person but there were things that were things she was trying to share with me, and it didn’t work,” reports Yahoo News.
Meanwhile, she added that her dad was her biggest cheerleader, even though he was a “complete deadbeat”.
Anne explained: “He always encouraged me to do things, and he was always the person who would cheer when I did do things.”
Even so, he never had more than £6,000 at a time, because if you had more than that “you couldn’t get the money from the social, which was to him the function of life was to live on the welfare state”.
Even though Anne admits she didn’t have the easiest childhood, she tries to have a positive outlook on life.
She told Thornton: “One reason I’m an optimist is I tend to feel that life starts off a bit crap and just generally gets better, because that’s been my experience!”
And as mentioned previously, raising awareness of autism actually saved someone’s life from suicide.
Anne helped raise awareness of autism (Image: Getty Images)
Anne explained how she was walking down the street in Middlesborough, when two men stopped to talk to her.
She said: “And one of them told me that I’d literally saved his life, because he had been very distressed and suicidal”
The man had watched her on I’m A Celebrity, and had been inspired by the brave Governess.
Anne continued: “It just inspired him so much that he thought, ‘You know, maybe there is a way forward’. So, he didn’t have to kill himself, which is honestly kind of awesome really.”
The Chasers Road Trip: Trains, Brains and Automobiles airs tonight at 9pm on ITV
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
