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Em Rusciano has responded to Meshel Laurie’s false accusations that she is faking her autism diagnosis.
The comedian, 43, revealed she had been diagnosed with autism last November just one year after being diagnosed with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder).
After Laurie unleashed a tirade of abuse against her in a since-deleted Instagram post, Rusciano said she never ‘imagined’ she would receive such baseless accusations.
‘Being accused of faking having autism for attention was not how I imagined today would end but here we are!’ she said in a Twitter post on Saturday morning.
‘Gonna put that on a T-shirt for my next merch run: “Autistic for Attention.”‘
Meshel Laurie, 49, (right) posted a vicious tirade against Em Rusciano, 43, on Friday after she revealed she will be seeking refuge in the sensory room at Harry Style’s concert
Laurie’s vicious tirade came on Friday after the former radio host said she may seek refuge in the ‘sensory inclusivity room’ at Marvel Stadium during Harry Style’s concert in Melbourne next week.
The author falsely accused Rusciano of ‘leaping on the bandwagon for clout’ and called her a ‘c**t’ in a vile rant on Instagram which she has since deleted.
She began by posting a screenshot of her mobile’s notes app which read: ‘She blocked me after the last time I called her out, but could Em Rusciano please list the concerts she’s had to leave early, or not attend, because they didn’t provide a sensory inclusion room?’
Laurie, 49, then went to her own comments section to continue her rant, cussing Rusciano out and falsely accusing her of faking her autism to ‘excuse’ her poor behaviour in the past.
‘I have a close family member on the spectrum and I don’t appreciate people leaping on the bandwagon for clout and to excuse the appalling behaviour that’s caused their previous poor career outcomes,’ she said.
‘A c**t is just a c**t and will always be a c**t. Many beautiful people are on the autism spectrum and they should never be confused with the kind of people who try to claim the diagnosis retroactively to explain their poor behaviour.’
After her fans turned on her, Laurie deleted the post and her comments to prevent further backlash.
Now Laurie has accused Rusciano of ‘leaping on the bandwagon for clout’ and called her a ‘c**t’ in a vile rant on Instagram which she has since deleted
Meshel (left) used to co-host The Project before becoming a hugely successful true crime podcaster. (Pictured from left: Laurie, Waleed Aly, Lisa Wilkinson and Anthony Lehmann)
In a series of follow-up posts, Rusciano said that she was simply grateful for Marvel Stadium providing a sensory room and that was ‘bewildered’ that her post had ‘set people off’.
‘I feel a bit broken over this whole thing,’ she lamented. ‘Why do I have to prove to anyone my particular set of struggles? Why is it a competition?’
It comes after Rusciano made headlines on Friday when she revealed she’s planning to seek refuge in Marvel Stadium’s ‘sensory inclusion room’ when she attends the Harry Styles concert in Melbourne next week.
The former radio presenter said she may need to use the room, which has noise-cancelling headphones and weighted blankets, in case her autism causes her to experience any sensory overload from the concert.
The room was specially designed by medical professionals, and the staff at Marvel Stadium have also been trained to help people dealing with sensory sensitivities.
‘I’m going to see Harry Styles at Marvel Stadium in a week and as you can imagine, live shows, sensory issues, autistic person, is pretty stressful,’ she shared on Instagram.
‘But Marvel have a sensory room with beanbags and noise-cancelling headphones,’ she continued.
‘Well done Marvel, this is amazing and inclusive and I feel so much less anxious about this live show,’ she said, before adding: ‘Because there’s a whole area I can go to when it’s too much.’
It comes after Rusciano made headlines on Friday when she revealed she’s planning to seek refuge in Marvel Stadium’s ‘sensory inclusion room’ when she attends the Harry Styles concert in Melbourne next week
When Em arrives to the stadium to see Styles, she will be able to get a sensory bag from the front desk.
The bag includes noise-cancelling headphones, toys to fidget with, and visual cue cards with different moods listed so people suffering from any sensory overload are able to communicate their feelings non-verbally by pointing to the chart.
If Em chooses to use the designated sensory room, she’ll be able to relax on comfortable beanbags or use weighted blankets to clam herself.
There are also fidget tools on the wall for people to play with, along with other helpful tools.
The room was specially designed by medical professionals, and the staff at Marvel Stadium have also been trained to help people dealing with sensory sensitivities.
In December, Em explained how she recognised her symptoms, and what living with both conditions was like.
When Em arrives to the stadium to see Styles, she will be able to get a sensory bag from the front desk containing visual cue cards and toys to fidget with
The star will be able to relax on comfortable beanbags or use weighted blankets to calm herself in the sensory room
The podcaster said she saw similarities between herself and her son Elio, who has also been diagnosed with autism, then researched how autism presents in women, finding several symptoms she recognised.
‘I can’t make eye contact, I am really blunt, I have a lot of sensory issues around food, smell, tags on clothes, textures,’ she said.
‘I have auditory processing issues, I stim, I’ve always stimmed. I watched other girls as a kid to try and figure out how to behave.’
Stimming is short for self-stimulatory behaviour, and usually consists of things like usual body movements and hand mannerisms.
‘All these things that I developed great shame around, I now realise are symptoms.’
As for what having two conditions at once feels like, she explained: ‘The autism and ADHD hate each other, it’s light versus dark, it’s not great’.
In a recent Facebook post, the former radio host also explained some of her ADHD symptoms.
Her list included struggling to follow recipes, maps and instructions.
‘I can’t wear a hair tie or scrunchy around my wrist, it makes me feel like I’m suffocating,’ she explained.
‘I understand I might not fit your preconception of what autism is but that’s not my job to do that. I was diagnosed by a specialist in the field,’ she said.
The podcaster’s young son also has autism, which sparked Em to pursue her own diagnosis
The popular podcaster still tours and performs live music around Australia
Em shot to fame on Australian Idol back in 2004 and then went on to have a successful career in commercial radio.
She now hosts her own hit podcast Emsolation, which is a Spotify exclusive, and still tours as a comedian and musician.
Em reflected on her disastrous career in commercial radio while discussing her ADHD diagnosis at the National Press Club in August.
In an emotional speech to the Canberra-based association, the 43-year-old said that working in breakfast radio brought out the ‘worst’ of her then-undiagnosed ADHD.
‘I know now that a person with rejection sensitivity dysphoria, low self-esteem, time blindness, someone who is very blunt, has a complete inability to regulate her emotions, and is hypersensitive to external stimuli should be nowhere near the breakfast radio environment,’ she said.
‘It brought out the very worst of my undiagnosed ADHD symptoms. It brought out the worst in me as a human,’ she added.
Em reflected on her disastrous career in commercial radio while discussing her ADHD diagnosis at the National Press Club in August
The media personality said the early hours in breakfast radio caused sleep issues, which only made her symptoms worse.
‘I was getting up at 4am each day, having not fallen asleep until at least midnight,’ she admitted.
‘Chronic and accumulative sleep deprivation makes ADHD symptoms much worse.’
Em also revealed she was diagnosed with postnatal depression following the birth of her daughter Odette in 2007.
Odette, now 14, has since been diagnosed with ADHD too, while Em’s son Elio, four, is autistic.
Em is also autistic and has passionately fired back at trolls who have questioned her neurodivergence.
She also said her stint on breakfast radio left her with ‘some severe PTSD’.
The former Australian Idol star got her start in radio back in 2005 and later hosted her own weekly show on the Hit Network.
In 2017, she moved to 2Day FM’s breakfast slot, but left after just one year following underwhelming ratings and reports of staff quitting to avoid working with her.
‘I was constantly told I was angry, I needed to be nicer to people, I needed to smile more and my tone was policed,’ she said last year.
‘I was under this microscope the whole time. Meetings would be on a screen and if I didn’t smile the whole time, there would be three emails about what’s going on with Em,’ she added.
Em’s most infamous stint in commercial radio was in 2017 when she co-hosted 2Day FM’s breakfast show with Grant Denyer (centre) and Ed Kavalee (right)
Em also revealed she was diagnosed with postnatal depression following the birth of her daughter Odette in 2007, and suffered ‘severe PTSD’ after working in radio
Em claimed it was an ‘exhausting’ time made worse by having a miscarriage and being told the format of her show would be changing.
She also alleged her colleagues ‘were leaking bulls**t stories about me’ to the press, and felt there was an overall ‘really toxic work environment’ at the Southern Cross Austereo-owned station.
For her part, Em acknowledged her own behaviour at 2Day FM ‘wasn’t great’, but said no one around her was willing to ‘cut me any slack’.
‘I’m still dealing with it all but I feel like I understand it a bit better,’ she concluded.
Before her departure, multiple reports alleged employees had left 2Day FM and others were looking for new jobs due to Em’s ‘attitude’.
‘Things are at breaking point, people just cannot work with her energy. There have been… casualties at the hands of Em Rusciano,’ a source said at the time.
‘The audio producer is now working on another show, the publicist is refusing to work with her, and one of the producers has told the company that they are looking for other work.’
‘I was constantly told I was angry, I needed to be nicer to people, I needed to smile more and my tone was policed,’ she said of her time at 2Day FM (pictured in the studio)
Speaking to Wil Anderson’s Wilosophy podcast in April 2020, Em acknowledged that many of her peers in the media and entertainment industry ‘violently hate her’ and ‘refuse to work with her’.
Em confessed that when she’s confronted with stressful situations, she has a tendency to ‘go into fight mode’.
‘Fists are up, and you’re either get in or get out of the way, and my behaviour was pretty appalling in radio,’ she explained.
‘Every time I’ve stepped into radio, my behaviour deteriorates and it’s appalling, and I know that, and that’s why I will never step back into radio, because I hate the person I become.
‘I think a lot of it is my fault, but I also know that that’s not me. Radio Em is not who I am… I’m actually a pretty kind person and a pretty reasonable person most of the time.’
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