Holly Willoughby shares rare snap with son Chester in ‘very emotional’ post about her dyslexia

Holly Willoughby shared a rare snap with her son Chester, six, on Instagram on Tuesday as she spoke about growing up with dyslexia. 

The presenter, 39, said she felt ‘very emotional’ as she held up her school friend Hannah Peckham’s book, Conker the Chameleon.

Holly explained the significance behind Hannah writing the children’s story as she talked about how they first became friends because they bonded over their dyslexia.

Holly is mum to Harry, 11, Belle, nine, and Chester with her husband Daniel Baldwin and while she seldom shows her kids, she gives snippets to her followers. 

To celebrate Children’s Mental Health Week, Holly posed with Chester while reading  her school friend Hannah’s book. 

She wrote: ‘Today is a very important day for one of my oldest friends… we met on our first day of school and eventually moved into our first flat in London together… we’ve been through a lot!… 

‘Probably something that bonded us hugely was the fact we are both dyslexic… that’s why this post is even more special and writing this I feel very emotional… 

‘if I could go back and tell my school friend that on the 2nd of February 2021 to mark the begin of Children’s Mental Health Week, she would publish her 1st book… 

‘I’m not sure she’d believe it possible… 

‘you did it Hannah… so so proud of you… it’s a beautiful and important book. One that helps open the conversation with your little ones about how to talk about their emotions… we all need that right’.

Last year, Holly spoke about her battle with dyslexia and revealed the condition left her believing that everyone thought she was stupid.

The This Morning host discussed having the learning disorder with Red magazine and said she still stumbles over words now on live TV because of it.

However the mother-of-three has revealed that she no longer lets dyslexia have the same power over her that it did while she was in school.

She told the magazine: ‘I’ve struggled with dyslexia since I was young and it used to hold me back. At school, reading out loud absolutely terrified me because I’d get all the words wrong and I was convinced everybody thought I was stupid.  

Holly continued by admitting that the way she learned to cope with it is by beginning to think about it differently in her own mind.

She said: ‘It still happens now – most of the mistakes I make on This Morning are because of it, but it doesn’t do what it did to me back then because I don’t let it have power. I now know that it’s all about how you package it in your head.’