Jason Arday #3

[Bridgeofsighs]

The enmeshment of two protective characteristics is what has been so protective for the individual in this debacle. It has neutralised, obscured and deflected critique.

Did JA ever get a formal diagnosis of autism? A provable one, not just something he claimed?

I haven't read Cartrarian but it looks like a no.

PS this exposes the publishing industry too. I know Michelle Obama's biography did great business and they were probably hoping for a UK version of that with his memoir. No due diligence from Simon & Schuster UK either.

 

[InkHeart]

Wrong! He did loads/as much as he could “for Black people, and Black women in particular”. View attachment 4102963
View attachment 4102956From this pile of pap.

Jason Arday: he learned to talk at 11 and read at 18 – then became Ca…

archived 21 Jul 2026 21:00:40 UTC

archive.is

See also, View attachment 4102960

Did he help them when he was making the world turn on an axis of love?

 

[SunsetSmile]

I don't know for certain. Cartrarian seems to be coming down on the side of not in my reading of his argument. There is no final evidence right now. Since this is such a central issue & underpinning to adjustments in his career it's going to be important for this to be clarified. I don't know if inquest will look at part played by disability /autism. Depends on scope. It's a high stakes situation for coroner/family & press.

Think it is in public interest to know the status of autism claim. But more sophosticated legal heads & interests may have different views.

 

[Bridgeofsighs]

Think it is in public interest to know the status of autism claim.

Me too. At the meeting re JA I went to, there was much talk about intersectionality. I would like to hear from people who went to school with him or knew him as a kid - when did he really start to speak or read and write? But I think they won't want to speak unless they are anonymous at this point thus undermining their claims. There are too many people who buy the narrative to speak that freely. We can but we're anonymous.

 

[Rosie878]

THAT'S IT!

You unlocked memories, he was a bit of a punchbag for that Milo ... embarrassingly, I was quite a fan of Milo and Steven Crowder back in the day ...

Same re: Milo

 

[TrashleenMoron]

I wonder if the book will get a load of joke-positive reviews, like Katie Price's albums did.

 

[boombalat]

I don't know for certain. Cartrarian seems to be coming down on the side of not in my reading of his argument. There is no final evidence right now. Since this is such a central issue & underpinning to adjustments in his career it's going to be important for this to be clarified. I don't know if inquest will look at part played by disability /autism. Depends on scope. It's a high stakes situation for coroner/family & press.

Think it is in public interest to know the status of autism claim. But more sophosticated legal heads & interests may have different views.

Yes, all this would be easy to prove one way or another, but if it turns out he wasn't GDD/non-verbal or having speech therapy 3 hrs/day it would out his family as enablers.

If his developmental conditions are to be released to the public, I'm sure the descriptions will be so vague that we can't tell whether he was over-egging the pudding or not.

 

[InkHeart]

Me too. At the meeting re JA I went to, there was much talk about intersectionality. I would like to hear from people who went to school with him or knew him as a kid - when did he really start to speak or read and write? But I think they won't want to speak unless they are anonymous at this point thus undermining their claims. There are too many people who buy the narrative to speak that freely. We can but we're anonymous.

His former classmates have already said he was very chatty as a kid. I don't know if anyone's said anything about his reading and writing.

I believe that he wasn't autistic, because non-verbal children were never diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and if he was diagnosed he would know that - and because autistic people just usually aren't deceptive and manipulative.

But really the only proof that ever exists of a diagnosis like that is that it's written in GP notes, which are based on a psychiatrist's letter than was written more than 30 years ago. So unless they can find that letter, it'll be difficult to prove or disprove. It might say he's autistic on his Cambridge HR paperwork for example, but that would only mean that *he* had said he was autistic, so it's not gonna be proof if they come out with something like that.

 

[SunsetSmile]

In general I would fully support the right to privacy in death & confidentiality of diagnoses. I think relatives can usually exert influence on scope of inquest. The motivation of many, often for understandable reasons, is to protect the memory, keep it narrow and not stray too far into more difficult areas. But it feels like that horse has bolted - it's been too public and significant sums of public money have been gifted.

I'm thinking back to some of the MH inquests. I believe there was one who wasn't an inpatient (so not a death in state care) but had interaction with MH teams. Her diagnoses were raised at inquest.

This may be a different situation but the autism identity is central to his defence against plagiarism and other claims. It was referenced by Prof S B-C,Jolly etc to attempt to stand down the press. Hard to see how it cannot be imperative to determine the absolute truth of this claim.

 

[Bridgeofsighs]

Yes, all this would be easy to prove one way or another, but if it turns out he wasn't GDD/non-verbal or having speech therapy 3 hrs/day it would out his family as enablers.

I'm not sure it's the job of his family to out him. If I had a brother who was a famous fabulist I would just quietly warn them that there's internet sleuths out there and it would be better to rein it in before someone else outs them. JA was a grown man and I'm not sure there was much else they could do without destroying or damaging family relationships - he was someone who they would still care about even if they knew he was a liar.

 

[Bridgeofsighs]

His former classmates have already said he was very chatty as a kid.

Under 11 years old I presume? There would also be plenty of teachers who could verify this and at what age but would they speak out?

 

[VeniVidiVicki]

His former classmates have already said he was very chatty as a kid. I don't know if anyone's said anything about his reading and writing.

I believe that he wasn't autistic, because non-verbal children were never diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and if he was diagnosed he would know that - and because autistic people just usually aren't deceptive and manipulative.

But really the only proof that ever exists of a diagnosis like that is that it's written in GP notes, which are based on a psychiatrist's letter than was written more than 30 years ago. So unless they can find that letter, it'll be difficult to prove or disprove. It might say he's autistic on his Cambridge HR paperwork for example, but that would only mean that *he* had said he was autistic, so it's not gonna be proof if they come out with something like that.

You have to supply evidence of a DX to access Disabled Student Allowance and while it is possible to get DLA without a DX, it’s almost impossible to get PIP without one. For people who are zero direct experience - disabled living allowance is until you’re 16; personal independence payment is after that. I believe the cut off used to be 18.

AFAIK JA doesn’t write about benefits in his book but I’m surprised by that. Surely the challenge of getting them would be important. Or the impact of transitioning from DLA to PIP.

Are we to assume his family never claimed?

I also don’t believe he was autistic. Not least because he was a massive liar

 

[Bridgeofsighs]

the only proof that ever exists of a diagnosis like that is that it's written in GP notes, which are based on a psychiatrist's letter than was written more than 30 years ago.

I AI'd it and I presume the Coroner would be able to access those notes but whether he would disclose it is another issue.

and

 

[SunsetSmile]

There's been claims on both sides from former classmates. So A neighbour hinted that he didn't notice anything different but then he went silent when it blew up.

Official teachers prob would be wary of entering the fray.

But to claim that level of impairment without a SEN school plan /documentation that is recorded somewhere is questionable. Also mainstream schooling ??

 

[Tabitha D]

Did JA ever get a formal diagnosis of autism? A provable one, not just something he claimed?

I haven't read Cartrarian but it looks like a no.

PS this exposes the publishing industry too. I know Michelle Obama's biography did great business and they were probably hoping for a UK version of that with his memoir. No due diligence from Simon & Schuster UK either.

View attachment 4103077
View attachment 4103078

One of the things to come out of the Cartrarian analysis (which I’d not picked up before) is that Arday didn’t even start mentioning autism as part of his “story” until 2017. Not on the Cilla Black show in 2012, not in his 2015 PhD (which only mentioned “learning difficulties”), but only in 2017:

Cartrarian does say that he obviously hasn’t seen Arday’s medical records (nor had any of the press) - but he is highly sceptical of the autism diagnosis and concluded that some kind of developmental difficulty was more likely.

 

[Tabitha D]

I don't know for certain. Cartrarian seems to be coming down on the side of not in my reading of his argument. There is no final evidence right now. Since this is such a central issue & underpinning to adjustments in his career it's going to be important for this to be clarified. I don't know if inquest will look at part played by disability /autism. Depends on scope. It's a high stakes situation for coroner/family & press.

Think it is in public interest to know the status of autism claim. But more sophosticated legal heads & interests may have different views.

I’m not sure it would come out in the inquest (they may decide the autism diagnosis is not relevant), but Cartrarian thinks there should in any event be further investigation into this side of things, because Arday had used his platform to spread misinformation about autism (e.g. saying it is an intellectual disability), but it remains to be seen whether that will be taken up.

 

[SunsetSmile]

Also the reference of Autism Dx to try to stop press reporting.

 

[HotesTilaire]

I don't know for certain. Cartrarian seems to be coming down on the side of not in my reading of his argument. There is no final evidence right now. Since this is such a central issue & underpinning to adjustments in his career it's going to be important for this to be clarified. I don't know if inquest will look at part played by disability /autism. Depends on scope. It's a high stakes situation for coroner/family & press.

Think it is in public interest to know the status of autism claim. But more sophosticated legal heads & interests may have different views.

Everything is in the public interest, but whether the press can access the info is a different matter. Interesting to see how the inquest handles it. I’d imagine the Telegraph is very keen to know.

 

[VeniVidiVicki]

Yeah that was my point when I posted the link because I don’t think any of us had clocked it before. He retconned the dx.

It is very, very unusual to get an ASD dx at 3. And vanishingly unlikely to get an Asperger’s one at that age. That is literally about having social communication difficulties which cannot be explained by any mental incapacity (ie you’re as smart as anyone else but you have issues which impact your interaction with other humans). And many 3 year olds don’t communicate verbally very well.

If you can’t be arsed to read the substack I linked to (and I don’t blame you becuase it is super long), here are the highlights:

• Arday didn’t claim to be autistic until pretty late in his public story
• his description of his diagnoses are woolly/ incorrect/change all the time (for any diagnosis, you get a letter explicitly stating what your DX is
• autism was a kind of ’we didn’t know at the time but it‘s obvious now’ for the guy who inspired Pinball Wizard.
• pretty much every single dramatic happening in his life is mirrored in a Home and Away episode

 

[InkHeart]

You have to supply evidence of a DX to access Disabled Student Allowance and while it is possible to get DLA without a DX, it’s almost impossible to get PIP without one. For people who are zero direct experience - disabled living allowance is until you’re 16; personal independence payment is after that. I believe the cut off used to be 18.

AFAIK JA doesn’t write about benefits in his book but I’m surprised by that. Surely the challenge of getting them would be important. Or the impact of transitioning from DLA to PIP.

Are we to assume his family never claimed?

I also don’t believe he was autistic. Not least because he was a massive liar

I have a DX of Asperger's Syndrome from when I was a kid, and it's pretty much as I describe it above: GPs letters based on GPs letters from 30 years ago. I don't even know if the original psychiatrist letter exists anymore. That's fine for me, but I'm saying that even if someone can produce "evidence" Jason Arday was autistic, that basically only proves that told them he was autistic. It's not like other conditions that are regularly treated and monitored - the diagnosis is literally a 37 year old letter, making it hard to prove or disprove in this case. People are asking if anyone can prove he was autistic. I'm saying not really, because nothing except that psychiatrist's letter from 37 years ago is real proof. Someone might come forward with a form where he has written that he's autistic, but that won't be proof.