James Martin was diagnosed with dyslexia as an adult and has previously said he feels sad that it wasn’t picked up when he was at school.
The celebrity chef – who only discovered he had the learning difficulty as an adult – has previously shared that he struggled with some of his lessons.
However, as James hadn’t been diagnosed he didn’t know why he found certain things hard.
James Martin said school was sometimes ‘an ordeal’
In 2012, he told the Daily Mail that school was actually “an ordeal at times”.
James, 51, said once he got to the local comprehensive he was put into the lower achievement classes, which he said was “depressing”.
He ended up leaving school with only one GCSE.
“Looking back, I feel sad no one realised I was dyslexic and gave me the help I needed,” he said.
James finding fame on cooking shows
The James Martin’s Saturday Morning star soon started working with food and his TV career followed.
He went on to make his name on shows like Saturday Kitchen and Ready Steady Cook.
It was struggling to read an autocue while he was at work that led to him being diagnosed with dyslexia in his thirties.
And James has since worked out some great ways to overcome it.
Ways of dealing with dyslexia
In 2018, he told Woman & Home that he can learn his lines really fast.
“So I basically look at the autocue for a second and then say, right, switch it off,” he said.
“As long as it’s there in your head, just let me go.”
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James also said a BBC boss sent him on a course where he learned how to keep talking while he was moving around.
“Without her, Saturday Kitchen wouldn’t have been what it was,” he said.
“Because the teacher of the course taught me how to walk and talk.
“The teacher said: ‘Don’t stand there reading like a presenter, because you can’t do it.’
“And not many people can walk and talk, but I can’t stand and talk!”
James Martin’s Saturday Morning is on Saturday (July 1) at 9.25am on ITV1.
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