Good Morning Britain’s Ed Balls and Susanna Reid touched on a recent campaign being run by STAMMA when the ITV star opened up.
10:37, 13 May 2026Updated 10:38, 13 May 2026
Ed Balls opened up on his personal struggle(Image: ITV)
Presenter Ed Balls opened up on his personal battle during the latest Good Morning Britain.
The ITV star was speaking to BBC Traitors contestant Jessie Roux regarding her involvement in the campaign, Don’t Hang Up. Hang On.
Detailing more about the campaign, which is organised by the charity STAMMA, Susanna Reid highlighted that people who are call handlers often hang up when there’s a long silence on the other end of the line.
Jessie added, “It is hard because I’ve had it where I have been hung up on, and ‘H’ is hard. Like,’ Hello’ on its own is a nightmare.”
Ed replied: “I can’t do H’s! From the autocue, every now and again, and there is one, it’s a nightmare!”
The BBC star aired her frustrations when she tries to get her words out on the phone and the other person hangs up.
Ed Balls spoke to Jessie about her campaign with STAMMA(Image: ITV)
She added: “It is hard, it’d help if people would just wait, that is all any of us ask, just wait. We’ll get there eventually.”
Over the years, Ed has been open about his stammer as he confessed he didn’t realise he had one until he was well into his political career.
It wasn’t until 2009 that the presenter went public about his battle with a stammer, before he became a patron for the British Stammering Association a year later.
Ed became public with his stammer in 2009
Speaking about presenting on Good Morning Britain back in 2021, he commented: “Sometimes it goes wrong, but that’s fine, we all are a little bit in-fluent in our speaking in normal life.
“But the idea that I could be on Good Morning Britain, looking at the screen, reading the auto-cue and getting through a morning like this with all this noise in my ear. Twelve years ago, I would be in meltdown, and in fact today, loving it!”
The ITV star was moved to tears during the show not too long ago speaking about his Stammer with Gareth Gates.
Ed Balls was emotional when speaking with Gareth Gates
He thanked the Pop Idol singer for inspiring him to speak openly about his own stammer. In 2024 commented: “You inspired me. I thought, ‘If Gareth Gates can do this, I can too.
“And if he can be public, I can be public too. It was really hard, but I did it because you showed me how to do it.”
As he got teary, Gareth stood up and embraced Ed into a hug as Susanna commented: “Nothing to be ashamed about, it’s part of your identity, isn’t it? He broke the ground for you, didn’t he, Ed?”
Good Morning Britain is available to watch weekdays on ITV from 6am