Alex Scott has opened up about having a speech impediment in a candid interview.
The TV personality and former footballer, 37, shared her story on Steven Bartlett's Diary of a CEO podcast
The star, who had speech therapy when she was younger, said: "I felt like I couldn't get across what was going on in my head.
"It's almost as if I formed a habit of just laughing at myself before everyone else laughs at me.
"Or, just not finding my voice and not speaking out because I'm scared."
The star said that despite her brain working "so quickly", the environment she grew up in made it easier "not to speak".
Earlier in the podcast, Alex spoke of her 'traumatic' home life claiming she and her brother could only speak 'when they were spoken to'.
Due to this, the presenter explained her mum didn't realise anything was wrong with her daughter because Alex "just wasn't speaking".
Since stepping into the spotlight as an Arsenal football player, the star has become one of the Beeb's best broadcasters, however Alex says she has to work extra hard when she's in front of the camera.
"I'm not [over it], I can hide it a lot better or I know I have to re-word things or memorise scripts," she revealed.
"I practise [words], so when I get on camera I know that there is word coming up that I can't say, I'll practise and practise, but then I still can't say it because I can't articulate where the words come from."
Alex continued: "Even earlier today I asked if there was cinnamon or whatever the spice is called... you see, there's certain words I just can't say."
The presenter defended herself on Twitter after she was criticised by a former minister, who said she 'needed elocution lessons” and 'spoilt' the Olympics coverage in 2018.
Lord Digby Jones slammed the former Arsenal and England footballer in a series of tweets in which he also criticised Sky News political editor Beth Rigby.
He wrote: “Enough! I can’t stand it any more! Alex Scott spoils a good presentational job on the BBC Olympics Team with her very noticeable inability to pronounce her ‘g’s at the end of a word."
However, Alex clapped back, tweeting: "Yep this is me and something you didn’t know. There are times I stumble over my words and my speech isn’t the best.
"That girl that had to go to speech therapy now sitting on TV".
