James Martin: Saturday Morning host reveals real reason he failed cookery

James Martin, 47, opened up about suffering from dyslexia, explaining how it impacted on his younger years and on his presenting. “I failed cookery at school,” he told guests Lisa Stansfield, 53, and Ainsley Harriott, 62. The crew could be heard laughing in the background, as the James Martin’s Saturday Morning host insisted: “I did! What are you laughing at?” he quipped. “The only exam I passed at school was art.”

James went on to explain: “I mainly failed it [cookery] because I’m dyslexic.”

He also said his dyslexia causes him to struggle with certain aspects of TV presenting.

“A lot of this crew think I’m ignoring them but it’s mainly because I have trouble reading a script,” he continued.

Opening up on his attitude towards the learning difficulty, he said: “People see it as a negative, I see it as a positive.”

James previously spoke out about how he deals with his dyslexia on set.

“A couple of mean tweets, they started slagging me off about the way I read autocue,” he told Woman and Home.

“But I can’t read autocue. If I read it I make a mistake.

“I basically look at the autocue for a second and then say, ‘Right, switch it off,’” he explained. |”As long as it’s there in your head, just let me go.”

He told the publication he was “severely dyslexic”, adding: “I’ve never read a book in my life.”

More to follow…

James Martin’s Saturday Morning airs Saturdays at 9.25am on ITV.

source: express.co.uk