TV presenter Anne Robinson has opened up about how her health has been affected by tinnitus, leaving her deaf in one ear.
The 77-year-old star, who hosts Channel 4‘s Countdown, battled with the loss of her hearing over time before realising she needed help.
Although deafness ran in her family, it wasn’t until she was in her 50s that Anne took action.
Read more: Countdown: Susie Dent reveals what she really thinks of Anne Robinson amid ‘feud’ claims
Anne Robinson took years to understand her hearing loss
In a Daily Maill interview, Anne shared: “I had no idea then, or now, how to avoid becoming deaf. Any more than I know what to do when you see a sign saying ‘Weak Bridge’ just before you drive over it.
“It was more than 50 years later, around the turn of the millennium, before I first began to wonder if my mother might have had a point.”
The star revealed how deafness ran in her family, something she observed as a child. Her grandmother was deaf and Anne remembers how she struggled to hear.
She said: “Grandma Robinson would be in bed and we rarely heard her voice. Instead, she would mouth her words — which was odd, since the only deaf person in the room was Grandma Robinson.”
In TV studios, ‘Can we have some quiet please?’ became my mantra.
For Anne however, it was much later in life that she realised her hearing was failing. She revealed: “In TV studios, ‘Can we have some quiet please?’ became my mantra, as chatter around me became seriously annoying.”
It was a meeting with a fellow Tv star that pushed Anne to get her hearing checked: “Larry Lamb, the actor, who I bumped into at a literary festival, advised: ‘Get yourself to Specsavers in the Edgware Road. The young man, Mark, in charge of hearing, will sort you out.'”
A hearing check revealed that her hearing in her left ear was poor and that she could no longer tune out chatter and noises.
Read more: Eamonn Holmes reveals stern words he had with Anne Robinson
Countdown impact
Rumours have been circling that all is not happy at Countdown, as Rachel Riley and Anne have reportedly been feuding ever since Anne took over as host back in June.
Susie Dent, who also appears on the show, wasn’t letting anything slip as she opened up on Sunday Brunch.
The lexicographer told hosts Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer that Anne brought “something different” to the show.
She explained: “Every host brings something different to the show, and I was thinking about this. One thing I’m really noticing with her kind of, under her reign, is we get these mini-interviews that we didn’t have before.”
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