Celebrities With Dyslexia

Longtime host Anderson Cooper spoke up about his dyslexia a long time after he was recognized with it as a toddler, and he reportedly stunned folks round him along with his revelation.

“I feel it is a signal of in all probability how properly I attempted to cover it once I was somewhat child. I bear in mind on the time caring that different folks would discover out about it,” he stated throughout an occasion for the Nationwide Middle for Studying Disabilities.

Cooper continued, “To a toddler with a studying incapacity, college could be an extremely isolating place. It made all of the distinction in my life early on. And the excellent news is that there are nice colleges on the market, capable of present the mandatory assets and help.”

Within the “Chicks within the Workplace” podcast, Bella Thorne promoted her ebook, The Lifetime of a Wannabe Mogul: Psychological Disarray, and opened up about what she struggled with due to dyslexia.

“I do not speak about it on this one, however within the third ebook it could be the truth that I by no means realized easy methods to learn and I realized easy methods to learn from studying scripts,” she stated. “I by no means realized easy methods to depend and I realized easy methods to depend from counting my dad’s money. So, I am obsessive about cash and literal money.”

Thorne’s character on the Disney Channel present Shake It Up was additionally dyslexic. The mission allowed her to share extra of her story and the dysfunction.

At one level, she admitted mixing up letters like B and D and M and W.

Caitlyn Jenner informed Esquire in 2012 that she suffered from dyslexia when she was in main college, however her situation reportedly grew to become her “best present in life.”

“It made me particular. It made me totally different. If I had not been dyslexic, I would not have wanted sports activities. I might have been like each different child. As a substitute, I discovered my one factor, and I used to be by no means going to let go of it,” stated the previous Olympian.

She wrote a weblog put up in 2015 about how she conquered her situation and her scripted speech on the ESPYs.

Jenner went on, “On the ESPYs, I actually needed to keep on with the prompter as a result of I solely had a sure variety of minutes to make it proper, to get my factors throughout. I practiced, and practiced, and practiced, and practiced to ensure I might nail it.”

Channing Tatum struggled with ADHD and dyslexia at school, and he reportedly by no means thought of himself “a really good particular person.”

“Not having early success on that one path messes with you,” he informed T, The New York Instances Type Journal. “You get lumped in courses with youngsters with autism and Down syndrome, and also you go searching and say, ‘Okay, so that is the place I am at.’ Otherwise you get put within the typical courses and also you say, ‘All proper, I am clearly not like these youngsters both.’ So that you’re form of nowhere. You are simply totally different.”

Tatum added, “You are simply totally different. The system is damaged. If we are able to streamline a multibillion-dollar firm, we should always have the ability to assist youngsters who wrestle the best way I did.”

For years, Cher has shared her incapability to learn previously and the way it grew to become one of many causes she dropped out.

“I by no means learn at school. I bought actually dangerous grades, D’s and F’s and C’s in some courses, and A’s and B’s in different courses,” she stated in an interview.

Cher was solely recognized with dyslexia when she was in her 30s.

In 2020, Chris Rock shared his nonverbal studying dysfunction (NVLD) with The Hollywood Reporter. He revealed he wanted to endure seven hours of remedy per week because of concern he may need Asperger’s syndrome.

After extra cognitive exams, he was formally recognized with NVLD.

“All I perceive are the phrases,” he stated.

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe suffered from dyspraxia, a studying incapacity that’s usually related with dyslexia. He revealed the motor ability has affected him and stopping him from finishing duties.

Nonetheless, he knew the optimistic issues that it may deliver.

“It has by no means held me again, and a few of the smartest folks I do know are individuals who have studying disabilities,” he informed a younger woman who was additionally recognized with the identical dysfunction.

From his college days to his time in Hollywood, Danny Glover obtained essentially the most heartbreaking feedback due to his dyslexia.

“I additionally handled the pictures I had of myself [in relation to] what is taken into account acceptable, bodily wanting,” Glover informed ABILITY. “The entire thing about dyslexia, in a way, is that it made me really feel as if I used to be in some type unworthy to be taught.”

He added, “I at all times felt that as a result of I did not have an applicable method of coping with that, I couldn’t get past my feeling of being diminished, I did not have an applicable method of making some form of house for myself which was essential.”

In 2020, Gwen Stefani disclosed her dyslexia analysis for the primary time after realizing her youngsters had issues studying to learn. Though she struggled due to the situation, she revealed it helped her write songs.

“The second I wrote my first tune – I had no concept that I may do this. It simply occurred – it unlocked one thing inside me,” she stated, as cited by Fox Information.

At 31, Henry Winkler realized the explanation behind his studying issue when recognized with dyslexia.

Talking in a sit-down interview with TODAY, he revealed he hit his head at any time when he bought annoyed by how his mind labored.

“I sat across the desk studying Pleased Days within the ’70s,” he stated. “Now, I am studying it and I am stumbling. I stumble as a result of I can not learn off the web page. Regardless of how arduous I strive, it’s a troublesome course of for me.”

Winkler continued, “I am messing up different folks’s timing. I am slowing the method down. I am making jokes as a result of I am hiding behind humor in my embarrassment.”

The Fonzie actor expressed his want he had recognized when his dyslexia began as he felt ashamed due to his lack of comprehension at school and at house.

Superstar chef Jamie Oliver, who left college when he was 16, delivered a heartfelt message whereas additionally sharing his expertise with dyslexia.

“The broader world is extra open to you coming at life in a barely totally different method. You do not have to be standard, you simply need to have the boldness to do it,” he wrote on Instagram on GCSE to remind his followers that they need to not let their college grades outline them.

Oliver added, “We have to embrace everybody’s internal genius, which undoubtedly is available in totally different shapes and types. No matter your outcomes right this moment, I do know you possibly can and can obtain wonderful issues!”

Jay Leno used dyslexia to additional his profession after rising up along with his depression-era dad and mom.

“My mom at all times stated to me, since I used to be dyslexic, ‘You are going to need to work twice as arduous as the opposite youngsters to get the identical factor.’ I stated, ‘OK. That appears honest.’ And I did work twice as arduous to get the identical factor,” Leno famous.

He added, “I bear in mind going to the comedy golf equipment and other people would line up at 6:00 p.m. for auditions to get a spot at midnight. By 9:00 p.m. guys would go, ‘I am not ready in line.’ They would depart after which I might transfer on up.”

For 20 years, Jennifer Aniston battled with dyslexia whereas additionally coping with her points.

“The one purpose I knew [that I had it] was as a result of I went to get a prescription for glasses,” she recalled in her interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I needed to put on these Buddy Holly glasses. One had a blue lens and one had a crimson lens. And I needed to learn a paragraph, they usually gave me a quiz, gave me 10 questions based mostly on what I’d simply learn, and I feel I bought three proper.”

The Buddies actress added, “Then they put a pc on my eyes, displaying the place my eyes went once I learn. My eyes would leap 4 phrases and return two phrases, and I additionally had somewhat little bit of a lazy eye, like a crossed eye, which they at all times need to appropriate in pictures.”

Earlier than her analysis, Aniston stated she thought she was not good when in truth, she simply “couldn’t retain something.”

Jewel has efficiently established her profession as a singer and songwriter, however she additionally confronted issues alongside the best way.

The “You Have been Meant for Me” singer, born Jewel Kilcher, reportedly thought she can be a author due to her dyslexia.

“The dyslexia factor was actually arduous: I had no thought I used to be good, I had no thought… It was all simply arduous; college was arduous, math was actually arduous,” she admitted.

Jewel credited an incredible instructor who pushed her to be impressed when she was within the eighth grade.

Her situation quickly pushed her to steer a symposium for highschool lecturers to share with them easy methods to train dyslexic college students.

Keanu Reeves struggled with dyslexia rising up, making it troublesome for him to differentiate letters and phrases.

“I used to be just a bit too rambunctious and shot my mouth off as soon as too usually. I used to be not typically essentially the most well-oiled machine within the college,” he stated when he bought expelled from a highschool.

Whereas the John Wick actor had bother studying, he was reportedly all in favour of tales and have become extra interested in performing.

Via Sense and Sensibility, Keira Knightley overcame her childhood dyslexia, which she handled for years. She revealed she centered on the script by additionally utilizing her creativeness.

“I used to be – am – dyslexic and the best way she bought me over it was to say: ‘If Emma Thompson could not learn, she’d make f—— positive she’d recover from it, so you must begin studying, as a result of that is what Emma Thompson would do,'” she shared.

Octavia Spencer has at all times struggled along with her dyslexia, however she makes use of her situation to encourage others and remind them that the dysfunction doesn’t imply one is just not clever.

“I simply bear in mind pondering in a different way. I may resolve puzzles faster than the common little one. I might begin with the mazes on the finish and go to the entrance and be finished in, like, 30 seconds. My deductive reasoning was essential,” she stated.

Spencer recalled, “My instructor informed me, ‘It’s important to take note of every part as a result of you do not know what’s a clue.’ That is how my mind processes data now. I can at all times inform folks, ‘That is what’s about to occur. Join the dots.'”

Orlando Bloom was recognized with dyslexia when he was 7, and he tried to maintain it a secret from his classmates. The identical situation additionally led him to show down a Saturday Evening Reside gig due to his insecurity on the time.

“I used to be similar to, partly my dyslexia, partly like that window of time the place I could not even … suppose straight and see the wooden by way of the timber,” he informed Howard Stern on The Howard Stern Present. “I might like to [host] Saturday Evening Reside now.”

Salma Hayek‘s dyslexia made it arduous for her to be taught a brand new language when she moved from Mexico to Los Angeles when she was 25. After overcoming the challenges, she grew to become one of the vital sought-after Latinas in Hollywood.

“I am actually a quick learner. I at all times was, which is perhaps why in highschool they did not understand I had dyslexia. I skipped years with out learning an excessive amount of,” she stated.

Hayek’s efforts landed her in her breakout position in Frida in 2002.

Steven Spielberg, the present No. 2 on Forbes’s Superstar Billionaires 2024, used filmmaking to flee his dyslexia. The filmmaker was correctly recognized with the dysfunction within the late 2000s as he seen he couldn’t acknowledge sure symbols.

Prior to now, his incapability to learn reportedly prompted him to endure from bullying. He later found how movies may save him.

“Motion pictures actually helped me, form of saved me from disgrace, from guilt, from placing it on myself … when it wasn’t my burden.” Spielberg stated. “I feel making films was my nice escape, it was how I may get away from all that.”

Even Tom Cruise shocked everybody when he revealed his dyslexia analysis. Whereas he scored his first film break when he was a teen, he confronted challenges on the time due to his incapability to learn his strains.

“I might strive to focus on what I used to be studying,” he stated of his situation. “Then I might get to the tip of the web page and have little or no reminiscence of something I might learn. I might go clean, really feel anxious, nervous, bored, annoyed, dumb. I might get indignant. My legs would truly damage once I was learning. My head ached.”

Cruise’s situation led him to turn into quick-witted, telling Individuals how he would be taught issues when he was a child.

“If I had a check within the afternoon, I might discover youngsters at lunchtime who’d taken the check that morning and discover out what it was like,” he shared with the journal.

Whoopi Goldberg solely discovered she has dyslexia after dropping out amid the bullying. Nonetheless, she discovered solace due to her mom’s help.

“What I bear in mind about being a child was that I felt fairly protected, I wasn’t afraid, and I had a mom who understood after some time that there was one thing totally different about the best way I realized,” she stated in an interview.