Christine McGuinness opens up about emotional burden of parenting autistic children

Christine McGuinness was moved to tears as she opened up about the hardest part of parenting during a recent podcast.

The model, 38, shares three children with her ex-husband, Paddy McGuinness including 11-year-old twins Penelope and Leo and eight-year-old Felicity – all of whom have autism.

Despite their separation, the former couple continue to live together in the family house for the sake of the children.

And speaking on Friday's episode of Parent Unplugged, Christine confessed the hardest part of being a parent is preparing them to live without her when she can't live without them.

Fighting back tears she told host Charis Halsall: 'Oh, this is quite deep to start with. It's realising that I am preparing my three children to live without me when I can't live without them.

'And why do you feel you're preparing them for that?' asked Charis. It's a job as a parent or a carer, anyway. You know, of course we want them to be happy, we want them to be successful and all of that.

'But really, we want to know that when we do go to sleep properly that they're going to be able to cope and manage.

'So I think that was the biggest realisation is that I can't live without these three kids and one day they have to live without me.

'So I need to prepare them to be as independent as possible, especially with their additional needs as well.'

Christine has previously spoken about her children's autism as she discussed the challenges parents of neurodiverse children often face on the BBC radio show Woman's Hour last year.