11 Stars Who Opened Up About Their Autism Diagnosis

Find out what these stars had to say about their diagnosis...

Bella Ramsey was diagnosed with autism while they were filming season 1 of The Last of Us, explaining that they had “always wondered” if they had autism -- but was never tested. Then, after connection with a crew member whose daughter had autism, Bella sought out a formal psychiatric assessment. They added that the “label of being autistic” has been “freeing” and helped them understand themselves. 

“I’ve always been watching and learning from people. Having to learn more manually how to socialize and interact with the people around me has helped with acting,” they told British Vogue. “It enables me to walk through the world with more grace towards myself about not being able to do the easy everyday tasks that everyone else seems to be able to do.”

Musician Grimes shared in early 2025 that she had been diagnosed with ADHD and autism. Looking back, she says that had she known earlier, she feels that she could have been more understood as a child and her life would have been so much easier. 

“I feel, like, had we known this when I was a child, I would have worked so much less hard, been on drugs, and so many of the weird obsessions and motivations I had would have been seen as pathological and I could have written off certain things that were very hard for me but I’m glad I overcame them,” she shared on X. 

Tamra Judge believes that she may be on the autism spectrum and was told by her therapist that she was likely autistic. Tamra opened up about how she’s been dealing with the revelation, working through things with her therapist and how it’s impacted her life with unhealthy coping mechanisms. 

“I am on the spectrum,” she shared on her Two Ts In A Pod podcast. “We’re trying to work through that. I have a really hard time processing stuff. I have a lot of sensory issues -- sound, light, touch.”

She continued, “I’m a person that just thought that things were black and white. I grew up with a family that didn’t have a lot of empathy or love, so I just transpired that into my adult life. But after talking and going through everything and my emotions, I have a hard time with empathy and feeling other people’s feelings.”

As an adult, Anthony Hopkins was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome -- an outdated diagnosis that is now classified as part of the autism spectrum disorder. He explained that he is high functioning and on the creative end of people who are diagnosed with the condition.  

“Well, I’ve been diagnosed with Asperger’s, but I’m high end. A lot of people with Asperger’s are highly functional, but inconsistent. They have nervous ticks, nervous habits, inconsistently obsessive thinking,” he shared with Desert Sun. 

He continued, “Some neurological people don’t agree, but my wife was trying to figure out who she was married to and she read a newsletter from a psychotherapist. He said, ‘You should see some of my patients.’ He put it back on the map that Asperger’s people tend to be creative or severely handicapped. I don’t know if that’s true of me, but I know I can never be restful. I tend to multi-task. I decide I’m not going to paint and then I’ll spend 24 hours painting.”

Holly Madison was 43 when she was diagnosed with autism and while it was late in life for a formal diagnosis, she admitted that she had always suspected she was different. She added that her doctor told her had “high executive functioning” which means she  “can pretty much go about [her] life and do things, quote unquote, normally.”

“I’ve been suspicious of it for a while because my mom told me that she was always suspicious that that was a thing. I always had trouble socially, not recognizing social cues, not picking up on things the same way other people did,” she said on the Talking to Death podcast. 

She continued, “But I just made excuses for it. I thought it was because I grew up in Alaska, and then around middle school, moved to Oregon and I thought, ‘Well, that was just a big social change.’ So I’m just very introverted. Like, that’s always how I wrote it off. But I went and got diagnosed earlier this year, so now I know.”

In 2024, Tallulah Willis publicly opened up about being diagnosed with autism for the first time, sharing a video of herself as a little girl. In the comments, she revealed that the diagnosis changed her life -- and later shared that she was actually misdiagnosed multiple times before figuring things out.

“I was misdiagnosed for many years, so only at 29 got my diagnosis, which is very common, specifically for adult women,” she shared on the Today show. “So it’s all very new for me. And so it’s only been in the last year that I’m learning what the terms are and regulating because I’m very high functioning autistic, and my struggles are more in sensory, so being very sensitive to the world, and rather than more commonly people assume it’s communication.”

She continued, “It was relief. If I’m being honest, I really hated myself, and I thought I was very broken, so to learn that the elements of myself that I felt were maladies or wrong or just too much for this world are actually OK, and they just require maybe a little bit more tools.”

Wentworth Miller was well into his 40s when he received his autism diagnosis. While opening up about it on Instagram, Wentworth shared that he still had a lot to learn -- but already felt that it had become central to who he is as a person. 

“This isn’t something I’d change…immediately being autistic is central to who I am. To everything I’ve achieved/articulated,” he wrote on Instagram. “I don’t know enough about autism. (There’s a lot to know.) Right now my work looks like evolving my understanding. Re-examining 5 decades of lived experience thru a new lens.”

He continued, “Meanwhile, I don't want to run the risk of suddenly being a loud, ill-informed voice in the room. The #autistic community (this I do know) has historically been talked over. Spoken for. I don't wish to do additional harm. Only to raise my hand, say, ‘I am here. Have been (w/o realizing it).’”

Courtney Love was diagnosed with autism when she was just four-years-old. She explained that when she didn’t start speaking as a toddler, her parents brought her to a psychiatrist and she was eventually diagnosed. 

“At an early age, I would not speak,” she shared with Rolling Stone back in 1994. “Then I simply bloomed. My first visit to a psychiatrist was when I was, like, three. Observational therapy. TM for tots. You name it, I’ve been there.”

In 2023, Sia publicly disclosed that she had been diagnosed with autism. While she didn’t say exactly when she learned of her diagnosis, she shared that she lived much of her life feeling out of place and uncomfortable -- and was finally able to let loose.

“For 45 years, I was like, ‘I’ve got to go put my human suit on,’” she shared on Rob Has a Podcast. “And only in the last two years have I become fully, fully myself.”

Daryl Hannah received an autism diagnosis as a child but never told film executives -- and didn’t publicly open up about it for many years. She explained that it did impact her career because many times she would refuse to do promotional talk show appearances, not because she was “above it,” but because she was “terrified."

“I’ve never been comfortable being the center of attention. It’s always freaked me out,” she told People. “[I] learned a couple of things that really would’ve made my life easier if I’d known them 20 years ago…I wasted so much time scared, self-conscious and insecure.”

Dan Aykroyd says he was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome in the 1980s after his wife convinced him that he should talk to a doctor about it. He explained that one of his unique characteristics is his obsession with law enforcement and ghosts, the latter of which inspired his film Ghostbusters.

“I also have Asperger’s but I can manage it. It wasn’t diagnosed until the early eighties when my wife persuaded me to see a doctor. One of my symptoms included my obsession with ghosts and law enforcement -- I carry around a police badge with me, for example. I became obsessed by Hans Holzer, the greatest ghost hunter ever. That’s when the idea of my film Ghostbusters was born,” he told The Daily Mail.