Holly Willoughby reveals secret health battle that drove her to 'write herself off' and admits 'I felt different' in emotional new Channel 4 documentary

Daily Mail​

19 hours ago

Holly Willoughby has revealed a secret health battle that drove her to 'write herself off' in an emotional Channel 4 documentary.
Jamie Oliver 's new show, Jamie's Dyslexia Revolution, hit screens on Monday evening.
The documentary saw the TV chef look into the challenges dyslexic children have to tackle at school and push for more support from the Government.
Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that causes problems with reading, writing and spelling and difficulties with processing.
During the film, Holly features and opens up about her own battle with dyslexia.
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Reflecting on her time at school, the TV star spoke about her 'poor results' in tests despite 'working really, really hard'.
She said: 'I definitely was terrible at spelling. I knew that because in spelling tests I would always get poor results'
'I always knew that when I got my homework back, there would be red pen all over it where there would be 'silly mistakes',' Holly added.
The presenter revealed how it made her feel 'different' and explained: 'I felt like I was working really, really hard, with not getting much results. So I felt different.'
She shared her take on the current school system and how it isn't suited for everyone.
'The school system is made for a certain type of learning and its so hard when you don't learn like that,' Holly said.
'When you then write yourself off at school as being non-academic that does shape your future somewhat,' she added.
The TV presenter has previously said she was diagnosed with dyslexia 'quite late in life' and has praised her teachers with helping her overcome it at school.
And during an episode of This Morning back in 2022, the star said she did not see the learning difficulty as a 'disability', adding: 'I think it makes me who I am.'
While discussing dyslexia with British entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson, 71, who is also dyslexic, Holly said: 'I don't see it as a disability at all, I see it as a real feather in my cap.
'I'm very proud of being dyslexic, I think it makes me who I am. I think half of the things I think that I'm actually quite good at in life are because I'm dyslexic.'
Sir Richard responded: 'I was so hopeless at school work that I decided aged 15 to leave school and do the things that I was interested in, and once I started putting my dyslexic thinking brain to things that I was interested in I started to excel at them.
'I think I was quite creative and great at getting a good group of people around me and motivating them well… and what I've realised over the years is being a dyslexic thinker is something that we should all be blessed with.'
He added: 'When parents are told that their child is dyslexic, they should rejoice and tell them that they will have a little bit of a difficult time at doing some of the fundamentals at school but they should be concentrating soon after that on the things that they are good at.'
She also previously said she found her difficulties 'shameful' as a child during an episode of This Morning in 2021.
'For me, because I'm not very good at spelling, for years I felt shameful about that', the host reflected, before she revealed the turning point in her journey came when she went to college.
She opened up about how she struggled with her experience during her younger years, revealing: 'Dyslexia is such a broad spectrum, people have so many different forms of it.
'Yes, I'm dyslexic also and I had to find my own tool kit and for me it was finding somebody who understood this who could teach me how to access those tools because at school it wasn't really that well known then.
'I wouldn't write down in front of people because I didn't want them to see, but it doesn't bother me now that I can't spell.'