Good Morning Britain host Richard Madeley has been criticised by a leading autism charity for his “staggering lack of awareness” about the condition.
Madeley enraged viewers during an interview with Undateables star Daniel Wakeford who he questioned on whether or not he had “always been autistic”.
The National Autistic Society said they had been left “extremely disappointed,” and invited Madeley to come to an open day to “discover how misconceptions hamper diagnosis”.
Jane Harris, Director of External Affairs, said: “We were extremely disappointed to hear Richard Madeley ask Daniel Wakeford’s mum if he’d always been autistic.
“It not only shows a staggering lack of awareness on his part, but clearly demonstrates that we still have a long way to go before everyone understands autism and autistic people.
“There are 700,000 autistic people in the UK and autism is a lifelong condition, people are born autistic, it’s not something a child grows out of.”
The statement continued: “We would like to invite Richard to come and meet some of the autistic adults we work with to discover for himself how misconceptions like this seriously hampered their attempts to get a life-changing autism diagnosis later on in their lives.
“If everyone understands that autism is lifelong, then we will be a little bit closer to creating a world that supports and works for autistic people, their families and carers.”
Wakeford was on Friday morning's show to promote his new album, That’s How I See It, when Madeley asked: “The thing with Daniel is, he has autism but is very intelligent and as we can see extremely talented. Has Daniel always been autistic?”
Wakeford’s mother looked taken aback, telling the presenter: “Yes, well there is controversy about that. We realised around 18 months that there was a problem. He is on the autistic spectrum with a comprehensive speech disorder.”
Viewers branded Madeley “uneducated” and “stupid”
Standard Online has contacted a representative for Madeley for comment.
Good Morning Britain is on ITV, weekdays at 6am.
