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Join today<\/a><\/p>\n \n Already a member? Jamie Oliver<\/a>\u2019s wife Jools Oliver has revealed that she has been diagnosed with autism<\/a> and ADHD<\/a>, saying that not understanding her neurodivergence \u201cruined\u201d her life for 45 years. <\/p>\n Clothing brand owner Jools shared the news during a podcast interview, stating: \u201cI just think it\u2019s quite draining. I think it\u2019s tiring. I think, actually, it\u2019s ruined, so far, 45 years of my life thinking it\u2019s something else. It\u2019s no superpower. It\u2019s just a drain and it\u2019s just really hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n She revealed that she decided to announce her diagnosis to her friends and family via an invitation to her 50th birthday party last year. <\/p>\n Jools, who suffers from social anxiety, said on Lessons From Our Mothers podcast: \u201cMy 50th birthday invite, I decided to come out.\u201d She told her chef husband: \u201cJamie, I’m going to tell everyone that I\u2019m not normal because I put on such a great act of being really like, \u2018Woo,\u2019 and so social. In fact, it\u2019s like my worst night. I\u2019m such an introvert.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n She said that \u201ca lot of people didn\u2019t come and were turned off\u201d, but she thought to herself: \u201cWell, this is me. I\u2019m afraid this is the new 50. This is it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The 51-year-old went on to say that she is \u201cscared\u201d to take prescribed medication due to her health anxiety. \u201cI\u2019ve got the medication, but I don’t want to take it because I\u2019m scared due to health anxiety that something will happen,\u201d she explained, calling it \u201cone ongoing situation\u201d.<\/p>\n Jools said that, following her attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis, she decided to get tested for autism after realising that she shares behavioural habits with her children, who were diagnosed with autism. <\/p>\n She said that she \u201cjust feels things so deeply\u201d, adding: \u201cI get so dramatic over things and I can be really up and down. And the empathy sometimes is painful. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know whether that\u2019s just a personality choice. Sometimes you don\u2019t even know, or is it just the menopause? Am I just going through the menopause and I\u2019m really going bonkers? I think when you do have neurodiversity, menopause is a double nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n Jamie has previously discussed his wife\u2019s neurodivergence, without revealing she had ADHD or autism, during a 2025 appearance on Davina McCall\u2019s Begin Again podcast.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cShe’s quite in the background and she\u2019s done that on purpose. She\u2019s definitely the rock. She\u2019s got incredible instinct, she\u2019s incredibly kind, very funny. I love her to bits. I can\u2019t really talk for her but she has neurodiversities that make her life really interesting and really challenging. <\/p>\n \u201cOf course, there\u2019s positives, but there\u2019s loads of things that, you know \u2013 she makes us the way that we are. And I\u2019m very grateful for Jools.\u201d <\/p>\n The pair, who have four children, met as teenagers in 1993, and have been in a relationship for 33 years, and married since 2000. <\/p>\n NHS<\/a> England<\/a> figures shared in 2025 estimate that nearly 2.5 million people<\/a> in England have ADHD, including those who are undiagnosed. The figures mark the first publicly available estimate of how common the condition is among the population.<\/p>\n Research also found earlier this year that a significant majority of autistic individuals<\/a> over 40 in the UK are living without an official diagnosis. Researchers at King\u2019s College London\u2019s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) reanalysed 2018 UK healthcare data, estimating that a staggering 91.45 per cent of autistic<\/a> men and 79.48 per cent of autistic women aged 40 to 59 remain undiagnosed.<\/p>\n It found that 96.29 per cent of men and 97.19 per cent of women with autism over 60 are thought to be undiagnosed, with an overall rate of 96.51 per cent. Symptoms can include<\/a> having specific and obsessive interests, a reliance on structure and difficulty in understanding social cues. <\/p>\n
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Jools Oliver has opened up about neurodivergence on new podcast (Instagram)<\/p>\n![\"Jools](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Jools-Oliver-Jamie-Oliver.jpg\")
Jools Oliver has been married to chef Jamie since 2000 (Getty Images for Disney)<\/p>\n