JAMES Martin has opened up on his battle with “severe dyslexia” that he described as an “absolute nightmare.”
The TV chef, 49, described his experience living with learning disorder on James Martin’s Saturday Morning in a repeat episode which aired today.
During the show, he explained how dyslexia has impacted him while presenting his cooking shows.
While interviewing former member of the Saturdays Mollie King, 34, who was diagnosed with dyslexia, James said: “I know a big passion of yours is this dyslexia foundation, which I wanted to pick up on because it’s something that’s close to my heart, because I’m dyslexic as well – severely dyslexic.”
While Mollie was diagnosed quite young, James did not know he was dyslexic until he was an adults.
“I didn’t know about mine until I was 30 years old, when I started in television to read the autocue, for me it’s an absolute nightmare to read that”, he said.
He credited a lady who works for the BBC for giving him the confidence to to help him overcome the challenges he faced.
He said: “She turned around and said, ‘You’ve got to walk and talk at the same time,’ and sent me away for a little lesson on how to do it.
“You need somebody like that to give you the confidence, don’t you really?”, he added.
Mollie first noticed she was having difficulties at primary school and was diagnosed at just 10 years old.
“Having that diagnosis and an understanding as to why I was finding reading so difficult, made such a big difference to me,” the Radio 1 DJ explained.
James revealed his learning disorder stopped him from passing cooking classes when he was at school.
He told Woman and Home back in 2018: “I failed cookery in school because I was dyslexic, still am. Severely dyslexic. I’ve never read a book in my life.”
James Martin Saturday Morning airs Saturdays at 9:25am on ITV.
