Rachel Riley, 32, reacted to Countdown presenter Nick Hewer, 75, with apparent dismay after he revealed to viewers he thought he had “suffered a stroke” because his eyes began to go “funny”. The mathematician was not given much reassurance after the Channel 4 show host admitted his health concern was an age-related condition with “no cure”. “Well, I’ve got to tell you I’ve had a few issues with my eyes. A few years ago now, I was with some other people and I suddenly thought to myself, I think I’m having a stroke,” Nick explained. “Because my eyes all went funny.”
He continued: “Things were floating around in my eyes and suddenly a Portuguese Man-Of-War shot right across my eye. And I thought it’s not a stroke but I’m not sure what it is.
“Anyway, it comes with age. You get floaters. Something for you to look forward too.”
Rachel replied: “Oh, that’s nice.”
Nick added: “With no cure. It’s age-related.”
It comes after the Countdown host recalled the moment an unknown woman was gardening at home and got dust in her eyes but later found out she had four bees in her eyes.
Nick explained: “She popped into hospital, she’d been gardening actually. There was a bit of a wind and she got some dust in her eyes.
“The day went on and it got progressively worse and more and more painful. Her eyes were swollen.”
He continued: “The doctor put a microscope on her eye and was surprised to see a leg wiggling around in her eye. So he got his tweezers out and he gave it a little tug.
“And some more little legs appeared and they were bees. She had four bees tiny little sweat bees in her eye. Terrible it was.”
Meanwhile, Rachel recently took a short break to enjoy her honeymoon with husband Pasha Kovalev, 39.
The maths whizz is expecting her first child with the former Strictly Come Dancing professional.
She recently chatted about her exciting news with celebrity radio host Alex Belfield where she admitted the pregnancy has “raised questions” the couple had not previously discussed.
Rachel gushed: “We’re enjoying ourselves. We’re always happy and natural when we’re together.
“It’s certainly raising new questions abut things we haven’t spoken about before with parenting.”
The Channel 4 presenter has yet to reveal the gender of the couple’s impending arrival but she admitted the pair are curious to know whether he or she will be a maths whizz or a dancer.
She said: “Are we going to have a maths genius? A STEM student or are we going to have a dancer?
“Or are we going to have a combination of all of them. Possibly? We’ll see.”
Countdown airs weekdays on Channel 4 at 2.10pm.
