‘I was convinced everybody thought I was stupid’: Holly Willoughby details her struggle with dyslexia and says most of her TV mistakes are down to the condition
- Holly, 39, said the condition left her fearing everyone thought she was stupid
- The mother-of-three said she was always ‘terrified’ to read aloud while at school
- She admitted that she no longer lets the learning disorder have the same ‘power’
- Holly rarely speaks about her condition, but has previously admitted fears that her own children will inherit it too
Holly Willoughby has opened up about her battle with dyslexia and revealed the condition left her believing that everyone thought she was stupid.
The This Morning host, 39, discussed having the learning disorder with Red magazine and said she still stumbles over words now on live TV because of it.
However the mother-of-three has revealed that she no longer lets dyslexia have the same power over her that it did while she was in school.
Cover girl: Holly Willoughby has opened up about her battle with dyslexia and revealed the condition left her believing that everyone thought she was stupid
She told the magazine: ‘I’ve struggled with dyslexia since I was young and it used to hold me back. At school, reading out loud absolutely terrified me because I’d get all the words wrong and I was convinced everybody thought I was stupid.
Holly continued by admitting that the way she learned to cope with it is by beginning to think about it differently in her own mind.
She said: ‘It still happens now – most of the mistakes I make on This Morning are because of it, but it doesn’t do what it did to me back then because I don’t let it have power. I now know that it’s all about how you package it in your head.’
Struggles: The This Morning host, 39, discussed having the learning disorder with Red magazine and said she still stumbles over words now on live TV because of it
Holly rarely speaks about her condition, but has previously admitted fears that her own children will inherit it too.
‘I do bear it in mind quite a lot,’ she told Glasgow’s Sunday Post in 2017. ‘Although my mum hasn’t been officially tested she has very similar tendencies to me.
‘I don’t know whether that’s hereditary or not, but I do think about that. Schools are so much more advanced in looking out for it than when I was at school.’
Family: Holly rarely speaks about her condition, but has previously admitted fears that her own children will inherit it too
Holly shares three children – Harry, 11, Belle, nine, and Chester, five, with her producer husband Dan Baldwin.
‘If anything was to crop up it’d be noticed a lot quicker than it was with me,’ she added. ‘And children learn in a different way now. It makes a lot more sense to me and things are a lot more visual. I feel the ways of teaching are better.’
The star has previously revealed that she uses coloured scripts and advance checks of the autocue to help her present This Morning.
Read the full Holly Willoughby interview in the July issue of Red, on sale the 4th June. It is available in all supermarkets and online at MagsDirect
Other half: Holly shares three children – Harry, 11, Belle, nine, and Chester, five, with her producer husband Dan Baldwin (pictured)
