Keira Knightley herself suffered from dyslexia
“My daughter is dyslexic – just like I was as a child”
Keira Knightley opens her daughter’s medical records.
© Landmark Media/ImageCollect
Keira Knightley was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. Now her daughter has also been diagnosed.
Actually, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” actress Keira Knightley (39) rarely talks about her children. It is all the more surprising that in the current episode of the “Ruthie’s Table 4” podcasts about her daughter’s dyslexia diagnosis.
Knightley is the mother of Edie (9) and Delilah (4), whom she is raising with her husband James Righton (40). She does not say which of the girls is struggling with dyslexia. But she reveals in the food podcast of the English chef Ruthie Rogers: “We have a dyslexic child.”
As they discuss culinary topics and raising children in today’s turbulent world, the British actress raves about her daughter’s ability to absorb information: “Her memory is absolutely amazing. She does the same thing I did back then.” She basically learns books by heart.
“The text literally bounces off”
Knightley also suffered from the language-based learning disability as a child. “I still find sight reading very difficult. The text literally bounces off me, but I absorb it and listen to it over and over again. That’s how I learn,” says Knightley.
How Knightley himself overcame dyslexia
Keira Knightley was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of six. Four years later, she managed to overcome her reading difficulties – with the help of Emma Thompson (65). In 1995, Knightley’s mother, Scottish playwright Sharman MacDonald (73), worked with Hollywood star Thompson on “Sense and Sensibility”. “My mother gave me a copy of Emma’s script and said: ‘If Emma Thompson couldn’t read, she would make sure she learned. So you’ll have to start reading, because Emma would too!'” Knightley recalled in 2012 in an interview with the British magazine “GQ”.