Sophie Hinchliffe - aka cleaning and homes influencer Mrs Hinch - has revealed both her and her son Ronnie are autistic, in an emotional post that was roundly praised by fans and autism awareness campaigners.
Mrs Hinch - as her followers have come to know her - had previously spoken about her eldest of two sons, Ronnie's speech delay and last night took to Instagram to update her 4.7million followers.
She wrote: '❤️ Autism ❤️ A question I am asked daily. Mrs Hinch, is Ronnie autistic? Yes, our wonderful Ronnie is autistic. In fact, I am too.
'Both Ron and I have had confirmation for a while now. We decided as a family to take our time to process, to learn, to grow and to find our way together before we shared. So that’s exactly what we did and are continuing to do each day.
'We have hard days but we also have lots of magical days. And if only everyone accepted and understood autism, the world really would be a much better place.
'Ronnie, thank you for being ours, for being so precious and simply incredible. Because of you everything finally made sense to me after 33 years. You are my absolute inspiration in life. I love you Ron … Mummy is right here with you, in this together, forever xxx'
Mrs Hinch's followers flooded to her post to send her love and support, and also praise her for her message.
One wrote: 'Gorgeous boy ❤️ as a fellow autism mum I know what you will have had to go through to even get to this point. It’s a constant fight and constant leanings but there’s no better mum to be behind Ronnie xx' Another added: 'I don’t comment much on anything, but I’m so glad other creators are spreading awareness on autism, I speak very loudly about autism, I would never want to change my beautiful son, but I want to help make a change in this world for him. Thank you for openly speaking out about a disability that is so complex and misunderstood ❤️'
Mrs Hinch responded to the comments, including those of her friend Stacey Solomon, saying: 'Oh gosh, I'm not even sure what to say here 😭❤️ blown away absolutely no words.'
Mrs Hinch had previously spoken about Ronnie's delayed speech. In October 2021, she wrote in an Instagram open letter that Ronnie had 'invisible speech needs.' And on an episode of Giovanna Fletcher's Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast she said: 'My first, Ron, had speech delay, so we went through a lot of speech therapy and still go.
'I wasn’t prepared for that, but when I had Len, I didn’t know any different. So when Len started saying these words that I’d literally waited years to hear from Ron and I was hearing them, I was like – I couldn’t believe it.
'I was thinking, "How beautiful." But, at the end of the day, it makes no difference.
'Their own time is the perfect time. Ron spoke when he wanted to speak, he was just taking it all in. And if I never had a word from him ever, I knew what he was thinking anyway.
'I guess it’s a mother’s instinct – he could look at me, make a sound and I knew what he meant.'
Rhiannon Evans is Senior Editor at Grazia - she launched and runs Grazia’s parenting platform The Juggle. The unique community is a place for parenting advice, laughs and discussion - and constantly campaigns for working parents. Rhiannon led The Juggle’s partnership with Pregnant Then Screwed, which called for Childcare Change Now - more than 100,000 parents signed a petition calling on the government to review childcare in the UK.