Anthony Hopkins’s wife Stella Arroyave believes the Oscar winner, 87 — her husband of 22 years — may have autism.
In a new interview promoting his memoir, We Did Ok, Kid, the Hannibal star admitted that his wife, 69, once told him that some of his habits fit the criteria of “Asberger’s.”
“I’m obsessed with numbers. I’m obsessed with detail. I like everything in order. And memorizing,” Hopkins told The Sunday Times. “Stella looked it up and she said, ‘You must be Asperger’s.’”
“I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about,” he continued, addressing his wife’s comment. “I don’t even believe it.”
Asperger’s syndrome is a diagnosis previously given to some autistic people. The term has since been merged with other conditions into autism spectrum disorder (ASD). People with ASD may experience social and communication difficulties, obsessive interests, and repetitive behaviors.
Despite the interviewer telling The Silence of the Lambs star that there could be a benefit to receiving a later diagnosis, Hopkins still was not convinced.
“Well, I guess I’m cynical because it’s all nonsense,” he said. “It’s all rubbish. ADHD, OCD, Asperger’s, blah, blah, blah. Oh God, it’s called living.”
“It’s just being a human being, full of tangled webs and mysteries and stuff that’s in us. Full of warts and grime and craziness, it’s the human condition. All these labels. I mean, who cares? But now it’s fashion.”
In We Did Ok, Kid, Hopkins touches on his estrangement from his daughter, Abigail, 57, whom he shares with his first wife, Petronella Barker. The two have been estranged for more than 20 years, with the actor previously admitting he has “not been a good father.”
Hopkins left his family one night in the throes of alcoholism; Abigail was just one at the time. He and Barker divorced not long afterward, in 1972.
He wrote that “after realizing I was unfit as a father for Abigail, I vowed not to have any more children... I couldn’t do to another child what I’d done to her.”
Once he became sober, Hopkins tried to reconnect with Abigail and her mother in 1977. Their meeting, however, was “awkward.”
“They didn’t want to be there,” his memoir read. “Throughout the meal, they keep catching each other’s eyes and making faces. Abigail never seems able to forgive me for leaving the family when she was a baby.”
He wrote that his estrangement from Abigail remains “the saddest fact of my life and my greatest regret… that hardness is my default… I hope my daughter knows that my door is always open to her ... I want her to be well and happy.”
