05 March 2023 , 22:05
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Christine McGuinness has admitted she hopes to begin to travel the world with her kids after previously feeling restricted because of her autism.
The mum-of-three has told how she and the kids have practice runs to prepare for holidays because their severe autism makes going abroad a worrying process for them.
But Christine also struggles with the thought of long flights putting her a long way from home, so a long-term ambition is still to go to America.
The model and reality TV star has made a new BBC film about her autism and ends the programme sounding upbeat about the future, having split from her husband Paddy.
Christine McGuinness is eyeing up more plans to travel abroad (Instagram)
Christine explained she had previously been restricted by her autism (Instagram)She says: "I'm excited for life. I want to live as much as possible. I need to live forever because I've got three little children, but I really need to live for me too. And I want to.
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"I've always wanted to travel. I've always wanted to go and try all different things. and I know now I am fully able to. There are still going to be times where I'm like, God, that flight is too long or that train is too long, there's always going to be those little worries there but I know now I just need a few extra things in place before I open the door."
Christine and Paddy married in 2011 and are parents to Felicity and twins Leo and Penelope who also have autism.
The couple revealed they had separated last June, just six months after their moving BBC documentary Our Family And Autism. During the making of that programme, she was also diagnosed with autism.
The star hopes to travel with her three children (instagram)Asked about travelling in the future by the Mirror at a press screening of the film, Christine said: "I do want to travel. But the thought of it still petrifies me but it is something I want to do.
"I think for now Europe is probably as far as I'll go. I don't want to fly too far and be too far away from home. Because it'll scare me if I don't like it, then.
"I really want to I want to take the children away this year. They've only been abroad once before. And before I took them abroad, this was just before the lockdown, I was taking them on visits to the airfield so that they could watch the aeroplanes.
"We did a short flight internally from Manchester to Southampton to stay in a hotel there for two nights to give them a mini experience of a holiday, to see how they'd find it again with that safety net knowing that if they didn't like it, we could just get in a car back. So we try to do trial runs."
- Christine McGuinness: Unmasking My Autism airs on Wednesday March 15, 9pm, BBC One and iPlayer.