HOLLY ROBINSON PEETE: Just Call Her Superwoman

By Karu F. Daniels, AOL Black Voices

The Robinson Peete Family at recent industry event. When I say that Holly Robinson Peete is a superwoman, I really mean it.

With all of her philanthropic efforts and her continuously evolving acting career I had no idea she was suffering the challenges of parenting a child with a disability.

In the May edition of 'Essence,' the '21 Jump Street' star opened up about her eldest son being diagnosed with autism, and the effect it had on her marriage to former NFL quarterback Rodney Peete.

"I was going to leave my husband ..." she revealed.

Because of his work schedule, the former Philadelphia Eagle was largely absent -- gone half the year for training and regular season play -- meaning that the actress did the child rearing on her own.

Rodney Jr. (pictured fourth from left) was diagnosed with autism at age three.

"I knew we had to roll up our sleeves and not go into denial," she explained. "With autism, early intervention is important. We had to get those therapies going."

Raising an autistic child has been painfully educational, she admitted.

"You really find out who your friends are," she confided. "When your kids is struggling at 4, being disruptive, and he stops getting invited to parties and play date, it hurts."

Peete, who recently landed a role in the ABC pilot 'Football Wives,' added that she didn't want to do film work and be away from her children for extended periods of time.

Her time at home has been well spent.

Rodney, Jr. is "now a personable boy in the process of being mainstreamed at school," the magazine reports.

"I had this moment when Rod was in this school where many of the kids were much more severely affected than he was -- he was like the poster boy," she recalled. "That's when I thought, This could be so much worse."

Thankfully for Holly Robinson Peete, it wasn't.

And we all welcome her back to primetime network television with open arms.

Next month, the networks roll out their line-up to see which are appetizing to advertisers. 'Football Wives,' described as a dramedy based on the popular British soap 'Footballers' Wives,' sounds like a winner, with a cast which includes Gabrielle Union, Ving Rhames, James Van DerBeek and Brian J. White.