Paul Scholes reveals in emotional interview he’s quit TV punditry to care for his autistic son

Paul Scholes reveals in an emotional interview he’s quit football TV punditry to care for his non-verbal autistic son.

The former footballer appeared on The Overlap revealed he could not break a routine that he shares with his former wife Claire in which they both care separately for Aiden, 20, three nights a week each, with Claire’s mother taking him on the remaining night.

He spoke about structuring his entire schedule around Aiden, with the week including swimming on Tuesdays, eating out on Thursdays, and shopping for chocolate on Sundays.

“All the work I do now is around his routines.”

Scholsey opens up on stepping away from punditry to focus on his son and fatherhood. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/LxYtm6uMHw

— The Overlap (@WeAreTheOverlap) October 30, 2025

Roy Keane: “Do you not do games anymore, Scholesy?”

Paul: “No.”

Roy Keane: “Have you stopped doing it?”

Paul: “Yeah.”

Ian Wright: “Why Scholesy?”

Jill Scott: “You did Champions League, didn’t you, quite a bit last season?”

Paul: “Yeah, I did last year. I just made a decision this year because of Aiden. Obviously special needs and stuff that you’ll probably know about. All the work I do now is just around his routines. He has quite a strict routine every single day. So I just decided everything I’m going to do is around Aiden.”

Roy: “I think people don’t realise the punditry side, you do travel a bit, don’t you? If you’re travelling up and down to London, you’re away for one or two years.”

Paul: “Well, a lot of the stuff I was doing was in the studio. I was Manchester, in London all the time.”

Gary Neville: “You might not want to talk about this, but your routine that you follow around Aiden? Because if I say to you sometimes about a meeting on a certain day, you say, no, that’s absolutely… I can’t do it that day. What is your routine a week that you follow around Aiden?”

Paul: “Well, me and Claire, obviously, we’re not together anymore. So we’re having three nights each. And Claire’s mum has him on a Friday night, but we’ll always do the same things with him. And he doesn’t understand, he won’t know what day of the week it is. He won’t know what time it is, but he’ll know from what we’re doing what day it is.

“So I pick him up every Tuesday from his daycare place that he goes to for four hours. And we go swimming. He loves swimming. He loves it. So we’ll go in the pool for two hours. We’ll go home, have his pizza on the way home.

“So he knows every single day is something different. Thursday, I’ll pick him up, we’ll go for something to eat, then go home. On a Sunday, I’ll pick him up from Claire’s house, we’ll go to Tesco. He buys a fucking trolley full of chocolate.

“So he doesn’t know what day it is, he doesn’t know what time it is. He only knows from what we’re doing.

Ian: “How old is he?”

Paul: “21 in December.”

Jill: “But, obviously, you share bits of your week on social media, don’t you? I think I always comment on your videos and stuff. But is that important for you to, like, is there a reason, like, raising awareness?”

Paul: “Do you know what, I started doing that. He’s obviously non-verbal. Can’t speak. When I say he can’t speak, I think he understands a lot more than we think. If you say something to him, he will understand it.

“And he has, like, sounds. But it’s only, like, people who are close to him will know what he’s saying.”

Ian: “What’s it called? What’s it called?”

Paul: “Autism. But it’s, like, a really severe… It’s autism where you can go to school normally and all that kind of stuff. I didn’t think we were going down this road, by the way. Do you know what I mean? No, yeah.

“I did it one or two times. And I only showed the good bits of it. There’s some bits that aren’t great. And it was just the response I had from people, you know, parents with the same trouble. The amount of people saying, God, that helps us. We’ve got a kid who’s just the same or something. That’s what I just carry on doing.

Roy: “It’s nice to have a bit of normality as well. To do stuff that other kids are doing.”

Ian: “Do people ask you about it? Do they get in touch with you and say, you know, like, what do you do?”

Paul: “Yeah, all the time.”

Ian: “Do you make it public that you don’t mind speaking about it?”

Paul: “No, I don’t. And I will reply to people on Instagram as well. Because there’s… It’s hard. Do you know what I mean? Especially when they’re young. Because there’s the harm and there’s the attacking people. And I only put the nice stuff on. There’s so many things that, I do sometimes think about putting the stuff on where he’s not too happy. He might try and bite, he might scratch it. I do think about whether I think, is that probably not the right thing to do?”

Gary: “I used to sit next to you in the dressing room, didn’t I? And I remember there were times towards the end you’d come in and you’d have scratches all over your face. And I’d say, everything all right? You’d say, yeah. And you might be… A haircut or something that basically…”

Paul: “Bit your arm, scratching you just because… And it was simply frustration for him, because he just didn’t understand things. Couldn’t tell you how he was feeling.”

Ian: “Would the football give you a break from that? When you played, is it something that…”

Paul: “No, you never got a break from it. No. It was very hard in them days. In them days, seems it was like years ago. I don’t think they diagnosed it till they were like two and a half. But you knew there was something wrong, but you just don’t know. I suppose when you…

“And then you get to the diagnosis of autism. And you don’t… You’d never heard of it. But then all of a sudden you start seeing everything. I don’t know if it’s just subconsciously that happens or what. I don’t know.

“But, no, you never get… I remember being told about it the first time. I think we played Derby away. I just didn’t want to be there. I remember they manager dropped me the week after, actually. I hadn’t told anybody. I ended up telling them a few weeks later, I think, cos it was quite hard. And he left me out. I’m just leaving you out cos you weren’t very good last weekend. I just… I didn’t want to be there.

“We didn’t really know what was in store for us. Some kids who don’t speak at one and a half, two years of age, all of a sudden you get to five or six. Speaking, everything’s right. Call it like a late development thing. But we just knew what they did. It was never going to be like that.”

Jill: “When you were at United, was there anyone that you did speak to or do? Were you kind of the kind of character that would keep things to yourself?”

Paul: “No, I don’t think so. I don’t speak to anybody, I don’t think.”

Gary: “I think you, to be fair, you kept everything to yourself, didn’t you? It’s very difficult to get inside. Just generally, forget what you’re talking about now, but generally you’re very private. No-one really knows what Paul’s… We didn’t really know what you were doing away from us. We’d go out with you at times. But I think even you’ll know Roy from playing with Scholes that everything you kept to yourself in your life, that’s the way you are.”

Paul: “Yeah, and I would do now, really, unless somebody asked me about something. I would never, like… You don’t want any sympathy, do you know what I mean?”

Roy: “That’s where dress rooms are strange, in a different dynamic. People are going through different challenges and you are expected to turn up. And you never know what’s going on. Of course, nobody knows. Sometimes the manager might know, but the other players might be gone. You get dragged along with it a little bit, in a good way, but all the time you’re thinking it’d be nice to bounce something off somebody that you might be going through, but unfortunately a top-level sport is an element of life.”

Paul: “I would never allowed to. I even thought if I did speak to somebody, it’s not going to well paid. Do you know what I mean? I don’t know what had helped me.

“The big concern, obviously, now, because you’re getting a bit older, 50 years of age, he’s 20. What happens when you’re not here? That’s the thing that’s on my mind now all the time.”

Roy: “Don’t look too far ahead, Scholes, man. Day at a time. Serious. We all look too far ahead. You know what we’re talking about?”

Paul: “No, no. I know, but it’s the same principles. If it hadn’t been talked about, I wouldn’t have thought about it, but there are certain times of the week where… Fucking hell.”

Jill: “It just hits you.”

Ian: “Well, it’s nice to share that, Scholes, my friend.”

Gary: “Yeah, you came on air. You actually came on here last season, and I think there was a question? It was like, what’s the hardest thing? Obviously, I was thinking it at the time, and I thought you didn’t speak about it, and then later on that day, you went home, and you posted it on Instagram.”

Paul: “What did I say on the programme?”

Gary: “You said something like, I got asked a question earlier…”

Paul: “No, I mean, what did I actually say on the programme?”

Gary: “On the programme, you said something different. You sort of, you left, you went away, you named a football thing, but actually, later on that day, I always remember you getting home. And obviously, I would never say, mention it, and that’s why I asked you.”

Paul: “That’s what I mean, there’s times when it’s not in your head, it’s like anything, isn’t it? And there are times, like, right now, when you do start speaking about it, it’s at the front of your mind, isn’t it?”

Ian: “Is there any relief from it?”

Paul: “Don’t get me wrong, it’s… He can be so happy, it’s untrue, and give you great pleasure and joy. There are times, of course there are, but it’s not all bad, do you know what I mean?

“It’s like, there was a time last year, I took him away, and he kept, like, just feeling his mouth like that, and not sleeping, and what’s wrong with him, no idea what’s wrong with him.

“And he kept doing it and doing it, we was putting, like, gel on his lips, like a numbing gel thing, cos you can’t tell you what’s wrong, you can’t tell you if he’s got any pain anywhere.

“And he won’t go to a dentist. So, he won’t sit there and have somebody open your mouth, you just can’t do it.

“So, we ended up, we got him to a special needs dentist, and I think, at the moment, they gassed him. So, they had to have a look through that way, and, honestly, he had fillings, his mouth was an absolute mess.

“So, we had to take him for an operation, and, obviously, they gassed him to send him to sleep, and he hasn’t got a clue what’s going on, it’s horrible, it’s a nightmare, cos he can’t tell you the pain he’s in.

“But you just knew it, and that must have gone on for about eight or nine months. Imagine having toothache for nine months.

“So, he went in to have the operation, we thought there were only two fillings, and we just said to him, do everything, everything you find, do it.

“I think she even trimmed his hair for him as well. Honestly, just give him a little number two right there. He cut his fingernails, cut his toenails.

“He ended up having seven teeth out. When he came round, he didn’t know what was fucking wrong with him. I had a picture, he’s got, like, blood all over his mouth.

“He’s fucking dazed, he doesn’t know what the fuck’s going on, honestly.”

Jill: “I know. I love watching your videos, the holidays when you take him to the trampoline park and everything.”

Paul: “Did you see the trampoline one? He laid down for an hour. He laid down for an hour. He’s quite a big lad, though, cos he loves his food.

“And people… That’s another thing, when people comment to you, I think you need to watch his diet. You can fuck right off, he’s eating what he wants.

“That’s his one real pleasure, do you know what I mean? He loves food. I took him to the trampoline place, he’ll have a nice bounce round it, might be a bit of exercise for him.

“He’d just lay on the trampoline like that, had his top up, scratching his belly.”

Jill: “He looked in his element, though, I think he was…”

Paul: “I don’t care, I’m not forcing him to do anything I don’t want to do.”

Gary: “Just going back to where this started, so now you won’t do any games any more, but everything you do is within half an hour of home when you basically make sure you can get back.”

Paul: “Everything around his day, yeah. So the podcast is on a Monday, 11 till 1, so I drop him off half past ten on a Monday morning every week.And I’m there at 11, done at 1. I can do the Salford stuff easier through the day.

“Cos… although he doesn’t know what day is what, if I had to say I was doing a Thursday night game for United Europa League, that’s the night I normally have him. So he was just getting all agitated and biting, scratching. He spots the patterns that aren’t there. He knows the patterns there straight away. And I did that for years, really.

“Always thinking, I’ve got to stop this at some point, I’ve got to stop this at some point. So I just said this year he had the chance of doing the podcast and I thought that’ll suit me more. The Salford stuff suits me more. This every now and again suits me more, so it’s not suits me, it suits Aiden more.”