Holly Willoughby opens up on ‘terrifying’ battle with dyslexia

Holly Willoughby has opened up on her ‘terrifying’ battle with dyslexia.

The This Morning host has spoken to Red magazine about her history with the learning disorder, revealing that her battle with the condition left her feeling like everything thought she was stupid.

“I've struggled with dyslexia since I was young and it used to hold me back,” she admitted to the publication.

“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.”

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However, the presenter, who has risen to fame on ITV morning show This Morning as well as late night comedy panel show Celebrity Juice, which she recently stepped back from, revealed that she no longer allows the condition to hold her back.

“It still happens now,” she admitted, “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.”

Holly doesn’t often address her battle with the condition, but has previously opened up on her fears that her three children may inherit it as well.

Speaking about her three children 11-year-old Harry, nine-year-old Belle and five-year-old Chester, who she shares with husband of 13 years Dan Baldwin, Holly admitted to Glasgow's Sunday Post back in 2017, “I do bear it in mind quite a lot.”

“Although my mum hasn’t been officially tested she has very similar tendencies to me,” she added.

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“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.”

“If anything was to crop up it’d be noticed a lot quicker than it was with me,” Holly explained. “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.”