The Chase star Anne Hegerty has been open about having Asperger Syndrome – and has helped to raise awareness and understanding.
She has previously spoken about how it affects her everyday life and has now revealed the impact on her romantic life.
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Speaking to OK! magazine, Anne explained: “What I have found is that I do fall in love but it tends to not be with people I meet in real life.
“I fall in love with historical or fictional characters.
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“People I can put a bit of distance between, I get overwhelmed in the presence of actual people and everything shuts down.
“I’ve found that with sex, too, it’s like I can’t be fully in it – that much intimacy, I almost zone out.”
Anne, 61, was diagnosed with Asperger’s in 2005. Asperger’s is a development disorder and social interaction can be difficult for those with the condition.
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‘Naturally solitary’
As lockdown bedded in, The Governess admitted she quite likes it.
“As an adult I’ve developed better social skills; I know how to do a conversation, I know how to do a party,” she told the Mirror.
“I find them wearying, though, and I like that in lockdown no one expects me to go to them.
“It’s taken me a long time to work out what people are thinking and what they’re expecting. I am naturally solitary, and I’m comfortable with that.”
‘Executive dysfunction’
Anne has spoken in the past to the National Autistic Society about how Asperger Syndrome affects her life.
“I can’t multi-task, I can’t juggle things. If I’ve got something looming ahead of me, it’s very difficult to get anything done before then,” she admitted.
“I’m like, let’s get this out the way and I tend to sit around in this heap. Looking around me right now, there are plates that want washing up, there’s shopping to put away.
“This is not just normal slobbery. This is extreme, what they call executive dysfunction.
“Sometimes, even when I’ve got time, I just sit there staring at it, thinking I can’t make my brain understand what I have to do right now.
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