{"id":2345103,"date":"2026-03-25T16:22:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2345103"},"modified":"2026-03-25T16:22:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:22:59","slug":"rebecca-gibney-still-coming-to-terms-with-adhd-and-autism-diagnosis-later-in-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/rebecca-gibney-still-coming-to-terms-with-adhd-and-autism-diagnosis-later-in-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebecca Gibney still coming to terms with ADHD and autism diagnosis later in life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rebecca Gibney has revealed she has been diagnosed with ADHD and autism spectrum disorder at the age of 61 and admits she is still trying to come to terms with the news.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand actress, known for her role in Packed to the Rafters, said she has never cried so much in her life since she found out about the diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been hard. It\u2019s been very emotional,\u201d she told The Australian Women\u2019s Weekly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve cried a lot more in the last few months than I\u2019ve cried in a long time, which I thought I\u2019d gotten over as a woman over 60. I was like, \u2018No, I\u2019ve got all that stuff sorted\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gibney found out about her diagnosis while speaking to a psychologist about struggles she faced after competing on Dancing With The Stars in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still coming to terms with it because it\u2019s answered a lot of questions from my past – my panic attacks, my years of masking, which started obviously at a very early age,\u201d she told the publication.<\/p>\n

Masking is when a person with ADHD or autism hides their natural behaviours and traits to fit in with those around them.<\/p>\n

The Wanted star said her diagnosis has brought inner peace, and she now understands why her childhood was wrought with mental health struggles and began to experience intrusive thoughts in her 30s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was spiralling. The weekly panic attacks became daily, then hourly. The self-loathing was constant, and my pain was so deep I didn\u2019t know how to deal with it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s that slight mourning \u2013 gosh, if I\u2019d known this 40, 50 years ago, would I have gone through all the stuff that I went through? Maybe it would have made my high school years easier because, you know, I did have a lot of mental health struggles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The diagnosis came as she agreed to host Millionaire Hot Seat, a quiz show where contestants are just a few questions away from life-changing amounts of money.<\/p>\n

<\/picture>
Camera Icon<\/title><\/svg>Rebecca Gibney was inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame.<\/span> Credit: AAP<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While she enjoys hosting the game show \u2014 which is a first for her \u2014 Gibney is focusing on putting her family first this year.<\/p>\n

Gibney is just one of many Australian celebrities who have been diagnosed with ADHD at a later stage in life.<\/p>\n

Mamamia co-founder Mia Freeman received her ADHD diagnosis at age 49, while actress Sigrid Thornton found out she had the same condition at 65.<\/p>\n

Media personality Em Rusciano was diagnosed with ADHD and autism at age 43, while author Clementine Ford discovered she had ADHD at 41.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.perthnow.com.au \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Gibney has revealed she has been diagnosed with ADHD and autism spectrum disorder at the age of 61 and admits she is still trying to come to terms with the news. The New Zealand actress, known for her role in Packed to the Rafters, said she has never cried so much in her life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2345104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[309899,21741,21913],"class_list":["post-2345103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-celebrity-gossip","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Rebecca-Gibney-still-coming-to-terms-with-ADHD-and-autism.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2345103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2345105,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345103\/revisions\/2345105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2345104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2345103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2345103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2345103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}