Celebrities with ADHD: From Lily Allen to Paris Hilton and Sam Thompson

The Olympic gold medallist credits her neurodiversity to her success in boxing, after she was diagnosed with ADHD aged 15.

"I think it’s helped my training. I never get tired. I’ve always got energy. It helps with my shots. I’m always trying new things," she told The Guardian in 2017.

"I’m on Adderall, so I’m more focused. I stopped for a bit, but went on it again. When you have ADHD you can start a million things, but it’s very hard to focus and just finish one thing. The Adderall helps."

In a candid post on his Instagram page, the Angels singer explained his struggles after being diagnosed with ADHD.

"I got diagnosed with ADHD a long time ago. They gave me Adderall," he wrote, adding the drug led to some difficulties.

Williams then detailed some of his symptoms: "Restlessness - my toes dance all day. They are never still, I wiggle them, wave them or try to make them stretch like a hand would. Another one is impulsive.

"So, if you ever see me on TV or on stage and my behaviour is making you raise a quizzical eyebrow, just know My AD is full on, being high def."

Earlier this year, Nelly Furtado revealed she had received an ADHD diagnosis in adulthood as she announced her comeback to music.

"I believe I’ve had it my whole life, but playing instruments six days a week as a kid kept me in check," the Maneater singer said during a cover-shoot interview with Fault magazine.

"I think it was probably a blessing that they didn’t know until now. Because I think I’m mature enough now to not be overly dramatic about it and just deal with it and find solutions rather than dwell on the emotional side of it."

The Barbie director, 40, described having 'a tonne of energy' and being a 'real rule follower' as a child.

"I’ve always had a tremendous amount of enthusiasm," she told The Observer. "I was just interested in, like, everything. I had a really active imagination. I had a lot of really deep feelings. I was emotional.

"Now, as an adult, I have ADHD – they diagnosed me. But as a kid, my mum was like, 'Let’s sign her up for every activity. Let’s tire her out.'"

The model and actor, 31, previously spoke candidly about struggling in her teen years with her ADHD diagnosis.

Speaking back in 2017, she explained: "I’m not in hell now. The things that stick with all of us the most are the darker times, the more traumatic times. Those are some of the points I remember the most. I didn’t know how to communicate my emotions.

"I was very ashamed of the way I felt. I had a very privileged upbringing, I was very lucky, I went to an amazing school."

She continued: "And then the guilt of feeling that way and not being able to tell anyone because I shouldn’t feel that way and I shouldn’t feel bad. It’s the guilt."

When Solange was first told that she had ADHD in 2008, she demanded a second opinion. "I was diagnosed with ADHD twice," she told BET.

"I didn’t believe the first doctor who told me and I had a whole theory that ADHD was just something they invented to make you pay for medicine, but then the second doctor told me I had it. I guess I was in denial. I don't understand exactly what it is."

Paris Hilton’s ADHD diagnosis came at an early age. The socialite and businesswoman has been taking medication (to stimulate the central nervous system) since she was 12 but says living with the condition was toughest when she spent 23 days in prison for a driving violation back in 2007.

In a Larry King interview following her release, she said: "[I have] attention deficit disorder so it's hard to pay attention to things."

Paris – who has built a multi-billion-dollar business empire – says she "learned to deal with" her ADHD during her incarceration but it’s never affected her professionally, in television, singing or other ventures. "I'm doing fine everywhere," she told him.

Most famous for her badass character Letty Ortiz in Fast and Furious, Michelle Rodriguez has found it difficult to progress from acting to directing because of her lack of focus.

Speaking about her experience of ADHD with Cosmopolitan back in 2013, she said: "I want to write and direct but it’s not easy with ADHD. I have a hard time focusing when I’m alone."

However, the 45-year-old is still conflicted about treating the condition: "I’m a scatterbrain,” she added. "But I'm nervous of taking medication. I don't really want to depend on anything to control my brain."

One of the greatest challenges You actress Victoria Pedretti has found about living with ADHD is the label.

Being told at "six or seven years old" was "damaging," the actress recently reflected in a chat with Glamour magazine. "I have ADD, severe ADD, whatever that means. It affects the way I live, the way I think, the way I process information – or don't process information.

"But it was so damaging to me at that age because it didn't do anything for how I defined myself. It only allowed other people to make assumptions and feel like they had the answers to something far more complex than ADD.

"People with ADD are very different. I remember going to an ADD support group [and] being like, 'I don't like these people,' and why should I?"

The diagnosis certainly hasn’t held Victoria back though, and she's landed major parts like Love Quinn in You and Dani in The Haunting of Bly Manor.

Spice Girl Mel B has become a master at managing the symptoms of ADHD, previously saying that exercising is one of the best ways to keep her mind focussed and clear.

Talking to Paul McKenna for his Positivity Podcast, Mel said: "[Working] out for me is for my mind, because I do have ADHD, dyslexia… I mean, the list goes on and on. I find working out helps me meditate, it helps me get rid of a bit of my anxiety and it helps me focus on me just for that 45 minutes or for that 1 hour."

Former Love Island star Olivia Attwood didn’t know you could have ADHD as an adult.

Olivia told a Loose Women panel a few years ago that it was a "stroke of luck" that she got the diagnosis from a psychiatrist who specialised in ADHD.

Olivia has 'combined' ADHD – where you have six or more symptoms of each category: inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity – and explained that when it was unmanaged, during her 20s, it caused "a lot of stress" for everyone around her.

Opening up about the revelation on ITVBe show Olivia Attwood Meets Her Match, the reality star said: "Pre-Love Island, I just kind of hit this point where everything came to a head. My anxiety was through the roof, I was fluctuating in and out of mild depression, and I had to actually get some help for it."

On seeing a specialist, she continued: "When I was with [the doctor] for a couple of hours she was like, 'Have you ever been diagnosed with ADHD?' and I was like, 'Yeah, as a child, but you can't have it as an adult, can you?' And she was like, 'You absolutely can. I think not being aware of your ADHD tendencies has led you to be really hyperactive and then you're dealing with anxiety and that's brought on depression'. It's like a big chicken and egg situation."

For SZA, living with ADHD has not been easy – in fact, it’s been "f**king difficult," she says.

"It's a little embarrassing," the musician told i-D magazine a few years ago. "Especially when I'm nervous, my mind is running a mile a minute. My ADHD speaks for me before I can speak for me.

"If I'm in public and people walk up to me – because I've never been famous before – I've probably lost something by the time everyone has left me. I'm easily disorientated. But I'm getting a hold on that."

It took a while for the musician to accept her diagnosis but she's finally learning to stop changing herself for others.

In an interview with Cosmopolitan US, she admitted: "I didn’t want to have ADHD. I wanted to be a normal person. And I think that craving and the editing of myself hindered me, so I just stopped editing. And that was all.

"The embarrassment of being me still stands and exists all the time, every moment, but it’s also learning the acceptance part and also being down to see where me takes me is the part that set me free."

As a teenager, Love Island star Georgia Harrison was labelled a "troublemaker" and even thrown out of private school before she knew she had ADHD.

Speaking to OK! about her experience, Georgia said: "I found it hard to concentrate, I was getting in trouble for being too loud, speaking when I shouldn't, interrupting people – I had all of the symptoms."

Instead of being given help to manage the symptoms, Georgia says ADHD wasn’t spoken about enough when she was in school. "Back then," she continued, "The people who had ADHD were always treated like they were different, and put in different sets and stuff rather than being helped."

Until 2016, Simone Biles had never spoken publicly about having ADHD. But the US gymnast tweeted about her diagnosis when her private medical records were publicised by a group of hackers, revealing that she had a "medical exemption" to use one of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned substances.

In a statement on Twitter, Simone wrote: "I have ADHD and I have taken medicine for it since I was a kid. Please know, I believe in clean sport, have always followed the rules, and will continue to do so as fair play is critical to sport and is very important to me."

The 32-times Olympic medal and World Championship winner went on to say that she did not feel afraid to speak about it, adding: "Having ADHD, and taking medicine for it is nothing to be ashamed of."

Three-time Grammy-Award-winning artist Adam Levine says ADHD still sometimes affects his songwriting and recording – even though you'd never know from his back catalogue of hits. After experiencing ADHD symptoms at school, Adam was surprised to learn that the condition was still strong as an adult.

Writing for ADDitude magazine in 2019, the Maroon 5 singer said: "I had trouble sometimes writing songs and recording in the studio. I couldn’t always focus and complete everything I had to. I remember being in the studio once and having 30 ideas in my head, but I couldn’t document any of them."

He continued: "If you were diagnosed with ADHD as a kid, you might still have it now. ADHD isn’t a bad thing, and you shouldn’t feel different from those without ADHD. Remember that you are not alone. There are others going through the same thing."

British model Erin O’Connor was in her 40s before she was told she had ADHD. Now 45, the mum-of-two says that certain parts of her life suddenly make a lot more sense thanks to the diagnosis.

She told Stella magazine a few years ago: "I’ve discovered that I have ADHD, which is new. In retrospect, it’s very helpful to be able to piece it together and understand certain things in my personality and growing up. I’m actually currently resitting my maths GCSE.

"It just means a lot to me personally, now that I understand how my brain wants to function and store information. I’ve been able to understand how I can become a more straightforward learner."

Not many people know that New Girl actress Zooey Deschanel is living with ADHD. She's kept her experiences largely to herself but previously hinted that crafting is one thing that keeps her focussed.

In a 2011 blogpost for HelloGiggles, Zooey wrote: "Are you an unmedicated adult with Attention Deficit Disorder who also LOVES to do crafts? I am! I barely have the patience to write this opening paragraph (I have already gotten up four times), so I need to focus my unfocused mind on projects that can be completed very quickly… I recognise I will never complete something that takes any kind of patience (sorry needlepoint) so I decided to focus this blog on crafts I CAN complete."

Former NSYNC singer Justin Timberlake confirmed that he had ADHD in a 2008 interview with Collider. Giving a rare – and extremely brief – insight into his experience of the condition, JT quipped: "I have OCD mixed with ADD, you try living with that."