Ron Funches didn’t have an easy go during his run on The Traitors season 4, but the experience did lead to him discovering something new about himself.
On Thursday, the comedian shared that being a contestant on the Peacock series hosted by Alan Cumming motivated him to seek out an autism diagnosis, albeit a seemingly informal one. “Well the internet told me I was autistic and was right,” Funches shared in an Instagram Story on Thursday. “You win this round.”
“Still not gay. Yet,” he added, shutting down another fan theory that has been circulating about his sexuality.
Funches closed out his message with a note for his fellow contestants, whom he often found himself in the crosshairs of during his time on the show. “Thanks @thetraitorsus for helping me find out more about me through some type of cruel trauma,” the Loot star wrote.
Ron Funches, Maura Higgins, and Lisa Rinna on ‘The Traitors’.
Euan Cherry/Peacock
The reveal followed Funches sharing on Threads that he decided to seek out a possible diagnosis after seeing himself be so misunderstood on the series. The actor explained that his son Malcolm, 21, was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2, and he only thought of himself as an ally and advocate before witnessing his experience on the show from a viewer’s perspective.
“I honestly didn’t know I myself had Autism I thought I was just an ally and parent of an autistic child,” he wrote in response to a fan’s post about how they didn’t like the way he was being treated on the show. “But the way I felt I wasn’t being comprehended or understood while I thought I was being direct and seeing some of my own mannerisms made me start the process of going to get a diagnosis.”
In other comments, Funches admitted he “can be extremely unaware of obvious things,” and wished he had been more aware during filming.
But the actor stressed that he wasn’t sharing the news because he wanted to justify his actions during the show. “If the end result from me being isolated and feeling misunderstood on The Traitors is that I understand myself and my son more, I consider that a victory worth sharing,” he wrote in a separate post.
Ron Funches on ‘The Traitors’ season 4.
Sam McElwee/Peacock
Funches often references his son on social media and in his standup comedy. He celebrated Autism Awareness Day last year with a clip of one of his routines talking about Malcom shared to Instagram/
“He’s got great discipline, and I don’t know where he got it, because I never disciplined–I didn’t know how,” he says in the clip. “Especially having a teenager and having someone have autism, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what was teenager related. I didn’t know what was autism related.”
He continued: “I don’t know which of these things made him download 60 episodes of The Price Is Right, but I know that’s not normal. The Price Is Right is a fine show, but it is the same damn show every day. I’m like, ‘Son, did you need to fill the entire DVR with Price is Right? He’s like, ‘I’m just trying to keep season stats, dad.'”
“I’m like, ‘OK, so, it’s the autism. Carry on,'” he concluded to the laughter of his audience.
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New episodes of The Traitors drop every Thursday on Peacock.