TV’s Jay Blades never reads show scripts as presenter addresses late dyslexia diagnosis

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Jay Blades, who is best known for fronting the emotionally charged show The Repair Shop, made a candid admission as he opened up about his dyslexia discovery. It comes as the upcycling extraordinaire is set to release his memoir giving readers a personal insight into his journey to television success.

The 51-year-old TV star opens up about overcoming a mental breakdown, abandonment by his father and his devastating divorce to finding success with BBC’s The Repair Shop.

In his new book Making It: How Love, Kindness and Community Helped Me Repair My Life, Jay revealed how he struggled to read after he gave up studying while in secondary school.

The small-screen star was unaware that he had dyslexia and it was from the encouragement of his ex-wife that he received his diagnosis.

The restorer admitted he often doesn’t read his scripts on the BBC show.

Jay said: “I’ve still got dyslexia. I don’t read scripts for the shows that I do. The [producers] just want me to talk.

“They send me the emails of what I need to do.”

He continued: “But they learn very quickly there is no point in sending Jay an email – he never reads them. Send him a voicenote and he’ll listen to that, but he’s never going to read them.”

The Repair Shop frontman went on to explain how he discovered he had an issue with reading.

“I was 31-years-old when I went to university and my ex-wife identified that I had a problem with reading,” Jay explained. “She said, ‘Let’s find out if you’re dyslexic.'”

He added: “I did quite a big dyslexic test and I’ve got the reading ability of an 11-year-old.

“I stopped learning when I went to secondary school.”

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words, according to the NHS.

Jay’s comments come as the restoration expert will release his autobiography this month.

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The Making It memoir explores Jay’s life from his childhood and follows his journey to landing on-screen, but it wasn’t without trial and tribulations.

The Repair Shop host speaks openly about the bullying he endured, leaving school at 15 without any qualifications, to fatherhood.

Throughout his own story, Jay unveils the various challenges he faced from homelessness to mental health struggles and racism.

The small-screen star also highlights pursuing higher education and his path to future success.

Addressing his decision to write his book, Jay mused: “I’m in a position where people are looking at me and the articles written about me and so on and so forth, and I thought, ‘You know what, let me tell people exactly what’s happened to me and where I’ve got to where I’ve got to.’

“A lot of people just know me as Jay from The Repair Shop but no one knows the true me.”

He added: “And knowing the true me will inspire people to achieve things at the later times of their lives. Or just show people that no matter where you’re from you can actually achieve something.”

Jay Blades’ Making It: How Love, Kindness and Community Helped Me Repair My Life is available to purchase from May 13.

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