Holly Willoughby thinks she was a "crap" TV presenter when she first started her career.
The 35-year-old presenter – who has hosted ‘This Morning’, ‘Surprise, Surprise’, ‘Celebrity Juice’ and ‘Play to the Whistle’ – wasn’t natural enough when she first began and she had to take time away from the camera to learn her technique.
She admitted: "I’ve been really crap at my job. In the beginning I was terrible, although I enjoyed doing it, which was kind of more upsetting. I spoke in a posh telephone voice, and I was so unnatural: I fixated on remembering lines rather than just speaking. It took me two years working away from the camera in a TV studio until I went back to presenting."
Despite being one of TV’s biggest stars, the mum-of-three revealed how she never used to be confident speaking in front of others.
She told The Guardian newspaper: "My friends were amazed that I became a TV presenter. I was not a big talker at school – I never liked people seeing my braces, so I walked around with my sleeves pulled over my hands and my hands over my mouth in case anybody saw me smiling. In a group of people I knew you couldn’t shut me up, but it took quite a long time until I was comfortable enough to speak openly."
Holly – who goes by the nickname ‘Holly Willoughbooby’ on comedy panel show ‘Celebrity Juice’ – also admitted to getting frustrated when people judge her on her looks.
The blonde beauty said: "I can’t stand the assumption that I’m blonde and a bit stupid. In my younger days it was always such an easy option, an easy target, it used to drive me potty. Being known as ‘Holly Willoughbooby’ now is just a bit of silliness – it’s for a comedy show. I don’t know that I’d give people an option to be sexist – it does not sit well with me."
Holly Willoughby: I was a crap presenter when I started
