Featured Image Credit: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Bill Gates, Celebrity, Mental Health, Social Media
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: Bill Gates, Celebrity, Mental Health, Social Media
Bill Gates’ daughter may have let slip a medical condition her father believes he has in a new interview.
Billionaire Bill Gates is one of the most influential men in modern technology, but he's remained rather private about his life.
However, his daughter Phoebe Gates may have revealed a rather personal aspect of her father’s life; a possible medical diagnosis.
The 22-year-old student spoke on Alex Cooper’s podcast, Call Her Daddy, when she appeared to let slip her father’s condition. She was asked by the host what it was like when she would bring men home to meet her family, most notably her billionaire father.
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She replied: “For the guy, terrifying. For me, it’s hilarious because my dad’s pretty socially awkward.
“Like he’s said before, he has Asperger’s. So, like to me, it’s so funny.”
Gates has never publicly spoken about having Asperger’s syndrome but has previously said he believes he would be diagnosed with autism if he was a child today.
Asperger syndrome is a form of autism and is used to describe people at the ‘higher functioning end’ of the autistic spectrum.
According to the Cleveland Clinic: “Asperger’s syndrome is a diagnosis that healthcare providers no longer use. Prior to 2013, it described a brain difference that affects social interactions and certain behaviors. Today, people with the features of Asperger’s receive a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).”
The clinic also describes some of the signs of Asperger’s Symptoms and said the signs tend to fall into three groups, social interactions, communication, restricted, repetitive or stereotyped interests and behaviors.
For example, one of the signs under social interaction included ‘difficulty engaging in back-and-forth social interactions, like conversations’.
Under communication, the clinic stated 'repetitive use of certain phrases or expressions’ could be a sign.
And under the third category, one of the signs was described as ‘unusually strong interest in specific topics, like baseball stats or how airplanes work’ and ‘fascination with an object’s parts’.
Following Phoebe’s apparent slip-up, the clip did the rounds on social media with many weighing in on the possibility of Gates being autistic.
One user wrote: “Not exactly surprising.”
With another adding: “Turns out Bill Gates is not just a genius at tech, he's also part of the cool autism spectrum club!”
However, one person counted the suggestion by stating: “There seems to be a lot of self diagnosing going on here. Being high in trait disagreeableness, focused, highly intelligent does not necessarily mean one is 'on the spectrum'.”