Emily Blunt "worries irrationally" her children will be bullied at school because she was teased by her classmates for having a stutter as a child.
The 35-year-old actress can vividly recall being mocked for her speech impediment as a youngster when she was at school and now she fears that her two daughters, Hazel, four, and Violet, two, will face similar treatment from their fellow pupils.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper, the ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ star said: "Like every mother, I worry irrationally about my kids and want to make sure they are safe and taken care of and not teased. But teasing and bullying are part of it. I just say, ‘Look, everyone has got something and this is just your thing,’ to these kids who have severe stutters and come and talk to me. And it’s good to have a setback, because you have to overcome something and you learn a lot about yourself by overcoming something."
Recalling what it was like to be ridiculed for her stutter at school, she added: "Kids didn’t understand why I couldn’t speak properly. I think I looked funny and sounded funny and kids were like, ‘Why can’t you say it? Just say it!’ And even a teacher of mine was like, ‘Spit it out!’ "
Emily – who raises her kids with her husband John Krasinski – admits she still sometimes experiences her stutter now as a grown woman, especially when she is speaking on the phone.
The ‘Devil Wears Prada’ star said: "I still stutter and I will always be a stutterer. I still stutter if I am really tired or on the phone. I am really bad on the phone still … It’s a very misinformed issue that a lot of people, a lot of adults, are still going through."
Emily Blunt worries her children will be bullied like her
