Holly Madison on Autism Diagnosis: ‘I’m Just Not on the Same Social Wavelength’

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | December 13, 2023 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | December 13, 2023 |

Former Playboy model Holly Madison, 43, recently appeared on the Talking To Death podcast, where she spoke about being diagnosed with autism as an adult.

“I just got diagnosed. I had been suspicious of it for a while because my mom told me that she was always suspicious that was a thing,” she said, explaining that her mother told her she would “zone out as a kid” and adding she “always kind of had trouble socially—not recognizing social cues, not picking up on things the same way other people did” but wrote it off as being “introverted.”

She explained that she went to get formally diagnosed earlier this year. “I’m highly functioning,” she said. “I’m not, like, the spokesperson for everybody, they call it the spectrum for a reason.”

“I feel like, throughout my life, people have not really liked me or have been rubbed the wrong way,” she admitted. “I’m more quiet; I’ve only recently learned to make eye contact; I’m often off in my own thoughts, so I think people take that as offensive.”

“I’m just not on the same social wavelength as other people so don’t take it personally,” she said.

“I have a hard time understanding why other people might think differently or do things differently,” is how she described her diagnosis.

When asked why she decided to be public with the diagnosis, she said she felt it was “important” because it might explain why she was the way she was. Now she says it’s helpful in social situations and makes her feel “less anxious.”

“It helps other people be more understanding, and it also helps other people, like, not take the way I behave personally,” she said.

“Everybody operates differently,” and “have a little patience,” she concluded.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Payne Lindsey (@paynelindsey)