Penny Lancaster returned to Loose Women on Monday following a lengthy absence while accompanying husband Rod Stewart on tour. After being greeted with a warm welcome by fellow panellists Christine Lampard, Jane Moore and Stacey Solomon, the mother-of-two opened up about her shock diagnosis with dyslexia. The TV presenter found out that she suffered from the condition at the age of 46, but told the panel that she had always thought that she had something wrong during her school days, but said that teachers didn’t understand learning difficulties back then, causing her to feel "not clever and lazy".
Penny Lancaster praised Rod Stewart on Loose Women for giving her confidence
The star added that even before finding out, her musician husband has been her rock by helping her to address her difficulties. She said that she became "very fearful" whenever she felt she couldn’t do something, which led to her to feeling anxious, but after meeting Rod he helped give her confidence. She said: "Then I met Rod and he gave me lots of confidence. We did a lot of public speaking and I said 'I can't do it' but he would say 'yes you can.'"
The former model – who was tested for dyslexia after her son was also experiencing learning difficulties – added that she felt that the term 'dyslexia' should be changed to a more positive connotation. She said: "Everything with 'dys' is bad. It should be 'forexia'." The star first opened up about her diagnosis in January in an interview with the Mirror.
Penny got tested for dyslexia after her son was experiencing learning difficulties
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Penny has been happily married to Rod, 73, since June 2007, and the pair share two sons together: Alastair, 12, and six-year-old Aiden. In celebration of their tenth wedding anniversary last year, the couple renewed their vows in a romantic ceremony in the 45-acre grounds of their Essex home – as featured exclusively in HELLO! magazine. They were joined for the special occasion by their sons, as well as Rod’s daughters Kimberley, 38, and Renee, 25, sons Sean, 37, and Liam, 23, and Kimberley’s daughter Delilah, six.
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