Clare Balding Reveals She’s Lost 90 Percent Of Her Hearing

Clare Balding has revealed she has lost 90 percent of her hearing.

The BBC sports presenter said she only currently has “about 10 percent” of her hearing left, and often has to “guess” what people are saying to her.

Clare, 49, opened up about her hearing loss during an episode of the upcoming Dave panel show, Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable. 

Clare Balding

She said (via The Sun): “I really need to get my ears done. I’m at about ten per cent and I guess the rest. My wife keeps saying to me, ‘Stop shouting!’ because I’m clearly over-projecting because I can’t hear myself.”

In response to Clare’s comment, 52-year-old host Mel added: “I hear about 60 percent.”

Clare is one of TV’s most prolific sports broadcasters, with a career enduring over 25 years. 

However, earlier this week, the star spoke of how her father – horse trainer Ian Balding – didn’t believe she would forge a successful path in the TV industry because she is a woman. 

Clare is one of the country's most recognisable sports presenters

Speaking on the Paul McKenna podcast, she said: “I was very angry at my parents for their lack of acknowledgements for women’s achievements and that made me really determined to do the things that maybe they thought women couldn’t do. 

“I remember when I first presented Grandstand on the BBC my father being absolutely flabbergasted. He didn’t realise that was something any women could do let alone me.”

She continued: “I remember the very first award I ever won was the RTS award for a sports presenter. I went to the dinner and was nominated but thought ‘I’ve got no chance [of winning]’.

“I told dad that I was up against Steve Rider, who is the loveliest man, and another very famous man. It wouldn’t have been Jeff Stelling… but someone of that stature. 

“My father just went ‘You’ve got no chance, not against them’. And then I won and you just sort of think ‘this is quite surprising’ – to my father certainly.

“Other people might have been a little more open minded, but you know. So that was a big drive to do something, not to make him proud – although I’m sure that was there too – but to be different from anyone else and nobody else in the family worked in the media.”