British comedian Paddy McGuinness and his wife Christine Martin have revealed in an emotional poem that their four year old twins have autism.

Leo and Penelope McGuinness were born in 2013 after their parents struggled for years to conceive, and Christine shared the poem via her Instagram account on Sunday (July 2nd) to mark their kids’ fourth birthday.

“You excel in mathematics and amateur dramatics and you amaze me every day, because you a beautiful inside and out, in an extra special way,” it says, detailing their “daily challenges” and dealing with “the meltdowns, the routines and all the planning ahead. The groundhog days, the beige food and the temperamental 'time for bed’.”

Paddy McGuinness Christine MartinPaddy McGuinness and Christine Martin in 2016

29 year old Christine, who tied the knot with the 43 year old ‘Take Me Out’ presenter in June 2011, closed her poem by pledging to “encourage you both to embrace your autism because you are totally unique and fantastically awesome”.

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“It took us three years of trying before we had the twins,” Christine previously revealed, speaking of their desire to have children. “It was really hard and every month it doesn’t happen you feel like a failure – it’s so disappointing. We got there eventually but I think we tried a bit too hard because we ended up having twins!”

The couple welcomed another daughter, named Felicity, in September 2016. They’ve never previously spoken about Leo and Penelope’s health conditions.

McGuinness spoke earlier this year about how much he enjoys being a parent, though he’s realistic about the challenges it presents.

“Anyone who listens to the show who has children knows that having kids is probably 80 per cent really stressful hard work and 20 per cent fantastic,” he told BBC Radio 1’s Nick Grimshaw. “But the 20 per cent is so fantastic it kind of outweighs the 80 per cent.”

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