For Rebecca Gibney, competing on Dancing With The Stars in 2025 was a huge turning point in her life.
Previously, she admitted that the experience brought up feelings of crippling anxiety and body dysmorphia. Now, she’s revealed that it also led to an unexpected diagnosis: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Sitting down with The Australian Women’s Weekly for a candid chat, the beloved actress-turned-host of Millionaire Hot Seat revealed that spreading herself too thin last year led to somewhat of a breakdown.
“I’m a glass half-full person and I do feel incredibly grateful for everything that I’ve got,” she said.
“The downside of that is I’m not very good at saying no. I can sometimes work myself into the ground.”
Putting herself first
Feeling overwhelmed, Rebecca sought professional help – and that’s when the diagnosis was made, at the ripe age of 61.
“After Dancing With The Stars I had some major struggles, so I went back and saw a psychologist,” she explained, adding it had “been hard” and “very emotional”.
“I’ve cried a lot more in the last few months than I’ve cried in a long time, which I thought I’d gotten over as a woman over 60,” she said. “I was like, ‘No, I’ve got all that stuff sorted.’
“I’m still coming to terms with it because it’s answered a lot of questions from my past – my panic attacks, my years of masking, which started obviously at a very early age.”
‘Masking’ is the act of suppressing natural autistic traits to blend into social situations.
Hiding in plain sight
For Rebecca, she says that came naturally, being an actor.
“To an extent, it’s the job I’ve got,” she said. “You put on a happy face and go, ‘No, no, it’s fine.’ Inside you’re saying, ‘Urgh’ and recoiling.
“Even though I seemed to be outgoing as a young kid, I actually preferred being in the bush and hiding myself away.
“I would put myself in situations that I didn’t actually want to be in,” she continued.
She explained that she doesn’t really like crowds or crowd noise, or even being out in public “to a certain extent”.
Her diagnosis and subsequent treatment, she says, has finally brought some much-needed calm and clarity to her life after decades of confusion and chaos.
“All the drop-down tabs have gone away,” she said.
“There’s that slight mourning – gosh, if I’d 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.
“It is a sense of grief.”
