EXCLUSIVEChristine McGuinness reveals the devastating true toll of her divorce from Paddy, how she really feels about selling their £6.5m family home - and their co-parenting plans: RICHARD EDEN

She was 33 when her memoir, A Beautiful Nightmare, came out. But while that might have seemed premature for others, it felt entirely fitting for Christine McGuinness.

Now 37, the beauty queen turned reality television star is contending with another challenge – the impending loss of her seven-bedroom marital home, which is finally on the market following her divorce last year from comedian and TV host Paddy McGuinness, 51.

Christine, who was a cast member on The Real Housewives of Cheshire, tells me exclusively: ‘I’m devastated about the sale. We don’t know how long it’s going to take.’

Beauty queen turned reality television star Christine McGuinness is contending with another challenge – the impending loss of her seven-bedroom marital home

She split with former husband, Paddy, in 2022 but says it feels impossible for her to move out

Although she still shares the house with her former husband, from whom she split in 2022, she says it feels impossible for her to move out. 

‘I can’t. It’s not an option for me. We both own the house,’ explains Christine. She reveals that the divorce cost her £300,000, which she says she had to pay ‘out of my own money, that I didn’t even have. I’m still paying for it.’

The house is also home to all three of the couple’s children – twins Leo and Penelope, 11, and Felicity, 8 – who have been diagnosed with autism, as was Christine herself in 2021.

She was recently named Media Champion of the Year for her autism and ADHD advocacy at the British Diversity Awards and says the condition has become a motivating force.

‘I think being a closed book for so long and being undiagnosed, masking it, trying to fit in and not understanding why I wasn’t like other people all of those years and years, to then finally understanding myself and have three little children experiencing the same thing. That’s why I’m happy to be doing what I’m doing.’

While Christine hopes ‘a good offer’ will soon be made on the family home, which is on the market for £6.5million, she says she is looking forward to the next chapter of her life, adding: ‘I want to continue being myself and be on my own as a single divorced mum. It just feels like I’m finally falling into a place that I’m supposed to be in.’