Sia has spoken about her autism diagnosis for the first time and shared candid details of her experience living with the condition.
“I’m on the spectrum, and I’m in recovery … there’s a lot of things,” the Australian singer said during an interview on Rob Has a Podcast, also referencing her sobriety.
Sia’s revelation comes two years after facing criticism for casting Maddie Ziegler, an actress who doesn’t have autism, as a nonverbal autistic girl in her movie Music.
The 47-year-old did not disclose exactly when she was diagnosed with the developmental condition – which Autism Awareness Australia says can be detected at “two years and even younger” – but implied it was recently.
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“For 45 years, I was like … ‘I’ve got to go put my human suit on,'” she told host Rob Cesternino and fellow guest Carolyn Wiger, “and only in the last two years have I become fully, fully myself.”
The Chandelier singer reflected on Wiger’s appearance on Survivor, explaining it was nice to see someone on TV who embraced a quirky personality.
Relating to Wiger, who herself lives with ADHD, Sia shared that it took her a while to accept herself unapologetically.
“Nobody can ever know and love you when you’re filled with secrets and … living in shame,” she said.
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“When we finally sit in a room full of strangers and tell them our deepest, darkest, most shameful secrets, and everybody laughs along with us, and we don’t feel like pieces of trash for the first time in our lives, and we feel seen for the first time in our lives for who we actually are, and then we can start going out into the world and just operating as humans and human beings with hearts and not pretending to be anything.”
Following the backlash over her casting choice for Music in early 2021, the Grammy nominee defended herself on Twitter, urging critics to “watch my film before you judge it” and confessing that her “heart has always been in the right place.”
“I have friends with children on the spectrum, and I know that for all of them their greatest fear is, ‘Who will love them when I am gone?'” she told 9Honey about the film at the time.
“I just thought that was so powerful, and scary, really scary for the caregiver who has to have those kinds of thoughts.”
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The musician and producer says she made the movie “for the carers”.
“We didn’t want to make fun of the autistic community or caregivers,” she said.
“This is a love letter to the community. So I was devastated to read those tweets. I felt so sad at the time.”
The star struggled with the backlash and admitted in a 2022 interview that she was suicidal, relapsed and went to rehab after the film’s release.
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