Great British Bake Off host Paul Hollywood has hinted that he might have spent most of his adult life with undiagnosed health condition. The 58 year old celebrity baker, while chatting with The Times, opened up about his suspicions that he might be dyslexic.
He revealed that despite his struggles in school, he is currently training to become a pilot and expressed his newfound passion for learning. When questioned about the possibility of having undiagnosed dyslexia, Hollywood responded: “I might have done. My English is terrible, actually. I can’t write it, I can’t get my head around it.”
Bake Off star Paul also shared his motivation for learning to fly, attributing it to the “spiritual” sensation he experiences while airborne. He described the feeling as: “It’s ethereal. It’s quite a spiritual place, weirdly. Well, not weirdly, because you’d expect that up in the sky, when you are dancing with the clouds.”
Should he be formally diagnosed, Hollywood would join other high-profile individuals who have spoken about their experiences with dyslexia. TV presenter Matt Baker is known for his advocacy for those with this type of neurodiversity, which is sometimes confused with dyspraxia, affecting writing and communication skills, reports Surrey Live.
In a 2022 interview with The Yorkshire Post, 47 year old Baker discussed how dyslexia has impacted and continues to influence his daily life.
Former One Show host Matt Baker has spoken candidly about his struggles with dyslexia, revealing that reading aloud is still a daunting task for him.
He confessed: “Reading was always an issue and even now, reading aloud is a nightmare. No matter how hard I try, I can’t read aloud. The scariest thing someone can do to me is hand me an email on live television and ask me to read it out. It does something to me. It’s absolutely petrifying.”
Matt, who has also talked about how his son and father have dyslexia, offered words of encouragement to those facing similar challenges, saying: “The fundamentals of learning are the hardest things for us, and we will never be able to do them. That’s the lesson you learn, to just keep trying and never stop. And then when you apply that to the rest of life, you’re not put off by disappointment.”
He added: “Failure weirdly doesn’t register with you. It’s funny, because when you ask what’s the biggest mistake I’ve made, I actually don’t notice them. They’re just part of the learning. My dad’s dyslexic, my son’s dyslexic. And it’s just not an issue for us.”