Diagnosed with dyslexia at seven years old, Princess Beatrice, 35, has shared new details about living with the learning disorder.
The daughter of Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York appeared on the Lessons In Dyslexic Thinking podcast, where she spoke about her and her husband’s experiences with the disorder.
Bea is married to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who also has dyslexia. The pair share two-year-old daughter, Sienna. Edoardo also has a seven-year-old son, Christopher ‘Wolfie’ Woolf, from a previous relationship.
As dyslexia often runs in families, Bea is aware of the possibility that her and Edo’s children will inherit the learning disorder, explaining they are in the “early days” of what they’re achieving together as parents.
“As two dyslexics, we will be figuring out as parents whether or not our children have dyslexia and how best to support them,” she said, adding that she is grateful they are equipped with resources.
This isn’t the first time Beatrice has spoken about dyslexia and her children. While pregnant with Sienna, the royal anticipated whether or not her baby would inherit her same “gift” in dyslexia. “I think life is a little bit about the moments that make you; it’s the challenges that make you,” she told Hello! at the time.
During the podcast, Bea credited her own mother, Sarah Ferguson, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, for encouraging her to be resilient following her diagnosis.
“At that time she was just like, ‘we’ll just do it another way, of course we’ll do it another way’,” Bea said. “Inspiring that in me has really created that methodology for life.”
The 35-year-old also reflected on struggling to fit in during her early days of schooling.
“I remember trying to do extra lessons with teachers and just sort of blankly staring up at her face, and she was like, ‘why are you looking at me? The words are not on my face’ [and] I said ‘well, they’re not on the page either’.”
Upon seeing her old teacher at a charity event years later, the Queen’s granddaughter burst into grateful tears, crediting her guidance for where she is today.
Princess Beatrice currently works for the US-based technology firm, Afiniti. In the same interview, the royal confessed she dreads being “handed a whiteboard pen” for group think collaborations, and she would much rather make a speech.
As an ambassador for the charity Made By Dyslexia and a patron of the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity, Bea has long been using her voice to speak about dyslexia.
“Dyslexia is not a pigeonhole to say you can’t do anything,” she said in a statement for the latter charity. “It is an opportunity and a possibility to learn differently. Dyslexics have magical brains, they just process differently. Don’t feel like you should be held back by it.’
