Mel B on Being Diagnosed with Dyslexia as an Adult: 'I Felt Really Relieved'

"All these years, and now I know why I've struggled so much," the Spice Girl said

Melanie “Mel B” Brown is opening up about the dyslexia diagnosis that she received last year.

On the British talk show Loose Women, the America’s Got Talent judge, 43, talked about the difficulties she encountered before she received the news.

“All my life, I’ve just thought that maybe just my brain is wired different,” she said. “I’ve kind of hid it, but I didn’t know what I was hiding. When I’d see words backward, or I’d have to memorize a script over and over and over again, or it’d take me five months to read one chapter of a book because I couldn’t compute it.”

Brown found solace in performing. She explained, “That’s why I like the entertainment world and writing and singing and dancing — that kind of creativity.”

When she was finally diagnosed, Brown reevaluated her past feelings that she was “dumb” or “thick.” “To get diagnosed with that helped me really — I felt really relieved,” she said. “All these years, and now I know why I’ve struggled so much, and especially at school…That was just a nightmare.”

Now that she understands her diagnosis, she knows how to address it. “Colors on paper and writing help me learn and understand better,” Brown explained. “And then just talking about it too and not feeling so embarrassed and ashamed.”

Brown is not alone: Octavia Spencer and Joel McHale are among the celebrities who have spoken out about their own experiences with dyslexia.

Her diagnosis was not the only news that Brown had to spill on the show—she also said that Spice Girls are reuniting. Reuters reports that Mel B shared on the show, “For sure we are getting back together.”

According to Reuters, she added, “We’re sisters at the end of the day and what we went through was quite an amazing, brilliant, journey.”