Cat Deeley cried as Jamie Oliver told a heartbreaking story about dyslexic children who were let down by the education system on Thursday’s This Morning.
The presenter, 47, became visibly emotional as he chatted to the chef, 48, – who has lived with dyslexia all his life – about his new children’s book Billy and the Epic Escape.
Jamie told the show how the book features dyslexia-friendly font and clear spacing to help those with learning difficulties.
Dyslexia is a common learning disability that primarily causes problems with reading, writing, and spelling. Unlike a learning disability, intelligence is not affected.
Jamie has worked in schools for years campaigning for healthier meals and Cat asked her about an interaction she had with a child during her time at a primary school.
Cat Deeley cried as Jamie Oliver told a heartbreaking story about dyslexic children let down by the education system on Thursday’s This Morning programme.
Dyslexia is a common learning disability that primarily causes problems with reading, writing, and spelling. Unlike a learning disability, intelligence is not affected
She told him: ‘Once a 10-year-old boy came up to you and asked, ‘Have you ever felt like you’re worthless?’ And she had dyslexia, right?
His voice began to crack as he added, “That really bothered me…”
Jamie responded: “Me too, and with the school dinner campaigns I’ve done, I’ve been through 15 education secretaries in about 17/18 years and I think if you have a child or you are that child and you have it.” It doesn’t fit into conventional learning…’
Then he looked at Cat and said, ‘And I can see you’re getting excited…’.
Cat, teary-eyed, responded by saying, ‘Yes, it makes me so sad to feel that kids feel that way!’
Billy and the Epic Escape is the second book Jamie has written following his best-selling first book, Billy and the Giant Adventure.
He told This Morning: “Last year, when I promoted the first book, I got excited out of the blue and, as an adult in my late 50s, I thought, ‘What’s happening? I wasn’t expecting this.'”
“But I think when you’re a kid you want to fit in and, for me, you want school to be a place where anyone can thrive and I think there’s a lot of work to do for all kids to feel like they can…”
The presenter, 47, became visibly emotional as he chatted with the chef, 48, – who has lived with dyslexia all his life – about his new children’s book Billy and the Epic Escape.
He told the program how the book features a dyslexia-friendly font and clear spaces to help those with learning difficulties.
She told him: ‘Once a 10-year-old boy came up to you and asked, ‘Have you ever felt like you’re worthless?’ And she had dyslexia, right?
Then he looked at Cat and said, ‘And I can see you’re getting excited…’
Cat then told her co-host Ben Shephard about the 10-year-old boy they talked about earlier: “He also told (the boy), ‘Come back to me when you’re 16 and I’ll give you a job if you need one.’ That’s what which I loved. The end of the story.’
Amid his struggles in school and dyslexia, Jamie said that “food saved him” and that the boy in his story “hadn’t found his thing yet.”
He said, ‘Of course many of us don’t find that thing until later in life!’
Last year, while promoting her first book, Jamie shared the moving reason she wrote it.
The famous chef told the Australian program The Project that his dyslexia made him have difficulty reading to his children, so he made up stories for them.
‘It just happened. It was a little secret project. And one that came up when I put my kids to bed at night. “I’m dyslexic, so I was never very good at reading,” the star explained.
‘At a certain age, they say, “Dad, don’t read. Make something up with your head.” And I started recording them so I could remember who the characters were.’
Jamie said he has always struggled to put his thoughts in order and uses a dictaphone to plot out his cookbooks.
‘For me, as a dyslexic child, words were the enemy, right? They were what scared me in a way. I was never able to put my ideas on paper,’ he said.
The chef, who has written 35 cookbooks, has five children: Poppy Honey, 20, Daisy Boo, 19, Petal Blossom, 13, Buddy Bear, 11, and River Rocket, five. In the photo with his children and his wife Jools.
Billy and the Epic Escape is the second book Jamie has written following his best-selling first book, Billy and the Giant Adventure.
Amid his struggles at school and dyslexia, Jamie said ‘food saved him’ and that the boy in his story ‘hadn’t found his thing yet’
‘So you just find other ways. I mean, even in my cookbooks, I’ve never written or typed them. I have always used dictaphones.”
The chef, who has written 35 cookbooks, has five children: Poppy Honey, 20, Daisy Boo, 19, Petal Blossom, 13, Buddy Bear, 11, and River Rocket, five.
He has been open about his dyslexia and previously revealed that he had “never read a book” before reading Catching Fire in 2013, at the age of 38.
The 391-page science fiction novel is the sequel to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.