EXCLUSIVE ‘She was vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place her’: The Chase’s Anne Hegerty reveals she could not recognise her own stepmother due to her autism-related ‘face blindness’
- Prosopagnosia is a disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize faces is impaired, while the ability to recognize other objects may be intact
The Chase star Anne Hegerty revealed the true extent of her autism-related Prosopagnosia – also known as face blindness.
On the final episode of The Chasers’ Road Trip: Trains, Brains and Automobiles, which airs on ITV on Thursday, the quiz whiz gave further insight.
She revealed that the cognitive disorder meant that she once did not recognise her stepmother despite ‘vaguely’ recalling her face while walking down the street.
Open and honest: The Chase star Anne Hegerty revealed the true extent of her autism-related Prosopagnosia – also known as face blindness
The three part series sees Anne join fellow Chasers Mark Labbett, 55, and Shaun Wallace in pitting their wits against extraordinary competition as they try to answer: ‘Are we really as smart as we think we are?’
To find the answers, Anne, Mark and Shaun travel the globe to take on child geniuses, great apes, and the latest AI and robot technology.
Thursday’s final episode sees the group jet to Japan, during which they register their face information in one of their experiments, shortly before Anne detailed how extensive the affects of the cognitive disorder can be.
She explained: ‘One of the things that quite often goes along with autism is Prosopagnosia – face blindness – there was an occasion where I was walking down the street and there was this woman who was vaguely familiar, I couldn’t place her.
Details: On the final episode of The Chasers’ Road Trip: Trains, Brains and Automobiles, which airs on ITV on Thursday, the quiz whiz gave further insight
The whole gang: To find the answers, Anne, Mark and Shaun travel the globe to take on child geniuses, great apes, and the latest AI and robot technology
‘Hours later I remembered she was my stepmother! That can be embarrassing.’
Prosopagnosia is a disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize faces is impaired, while the ability to recognize other objects may be relatively intact. The term originally referred to a condition following acute brain damage.
On last week’s episode, Anne shed light on how her autism has stopped her from finding love as she revealed the longest relationship she’s ever had was four months, and ended as she ‘wasn’t good’ at providing him with the right amount of attention.
Anne goes onto joked that she’s ‘basically a Cyborg’ after learning that she has an emotional intelligence level of just 1%.
She says: ‘One of the things that really goes along with autism is that I really can’t hold down relationships. I’ve tried…
Open and honest: ‘Hours later I remembered she was my stepmother! That can be embarrassing
On screens soon: The Chaser’s Road Trip: Trains, Brains and Automobiles continues on Thursday at 9PM on ITV
‘My longest relationship was four months and that only lasted that long because he lived in Brighton and I lived in Manchester. He was a lovely bloke but I’m just good with the sort of amount of attention that people need.’
In the clip, Anne and her Chaser co-stars Mark Labbett and Shaun Wallace also complete a test to find out their level of emotional intelligence (EQ), with narrator Rob Brydon explaining 90% of people have a higher percentage.
After completing to test Anne learns she has an EQ level of just 1%, and jokes: ‘Basically I am a cyborg.’
The Chaser’s Road Trip: Trains, Brains and Automobiles continues on Thursday at 9PM on ITV.
