Friday, November 6, 2009

British TV presenter reveals she has dyslexia after followers criticize her spelling on Twitter

From The Telegraph in the UK:

Holly Willoughby (pictured), the television presenter, has disclosed that she is dyslexic after fans criticised her spelling on Twitter.

Willoughby, 28, who co hosts This Morning, made the confession on the social networking site after followers sent messages to her attacking a previously misspelt post.

Her fans mocked the blonde star's spelling with a barrage of private messages when she posted: "Morning, today we're talking, teenage peregnancies! 'How to be famouse' with Pete Waterman and Sara Payne is talking about victim support. x"

This prompted Willoughby to hit back, writing: "Thankyou for flagging up my spelling, I am dyslexic, and don't have time to spell check everything, you may just have to overlook it..."

Willoughby took over as the presenter of This Morning when she replaced Fern Britton as Phillip Schofield's female co-host in September this year.

Earlier this year, TV chef Jamie Oliver branded a fan on Twitter an "idiot" for nitpicking at his spelling.

A poster called "funditfrog" pointed out four mistakes in one of the 33-year-old's messages, adding: "You're influencing kids, you owe it them to be correct."

But Oliver replied: "Get lost you idiot im dislexic and i cant spell so stick that in your pipe! its better than being smug."

Other openly dyslexic stars include actors Tom Cruise and Orlando Bloom as well as England footballer Rio Ferdinand.