U2 star Larry Mullen Jnr has revealed he can no longer count numbers due to a debilitating health condition.
The 63-year-old drummer was recently diagnosed with dyscalculia, a learning disability that can affect a person's ability to count, add or use maths skills. Though it's often linked to dyslexia, the condition can occur at any point in life, from childhood to older age.
As well as numbers, it has also affected Larry's ability to count bars in music - and he says it's this that has sometimes left him looking 'pained' on stage when he performs with the rest of the band, which also includes Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton.
Opening up about his newly diagnosed condition for the first time, he likened his struggles to play music to being like 'climbing Everest', but he still manages to overcome it on stage.
Larry shared: "I've always known that there’s something not particularly right with the way that I deal with numbers. I'm numerically challenged. And I realised recently that I have dyscalculia, which is a sub-version of dyslexia. So I can’t count [and] I can’t add.."
Image:
Getty Images)He told the Times: "When people watch me play sometimes, they say, 'you look pained'. I am pained because I’m trying to count the bars. I had to find ways of doing this — and counting bars is like climbing Everest."
Now he has been diagnosed with dyscalculia - which affects just 6 percent of the British population - Larry has written and produced music for a new film called Left Behind about five mothers determined to establish the first state school in New York City for children with dyslexia.
It was even more special for Larry to be involved with, as his son is dyslexic. Speaking about the film, which will be released in early 2025, Larry said: "Making the music through the eyes of my dyslexic son felt personal and visceral." And despite his condition, Larry has no plans of slowing down. U2 are currently writing new material and hope to tour again at some point in 2026.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor is the ambassador for the Dyscalculia Network in the UK. The Murder on the Dancefloor hitmaker has two sons who were diagnosed with the condition when they were at primary school. The 45-year-old, who shares five sons with The Feeling singer Richard Jones, explained how it affects her family.
In a video posted to social media, she shared: "The question I get asked the most is, how did I know that my children - a couple of my children - needed a little bit more support with their maths. And in fact that there might be something a little bit more fundamental going on.
"When one of them got to about seven or eight, which is the age that I've realised that children seem to, their normal coping strategies for getting by in a lesson, where if there is something they are finding a bit of a challenge, that's when it starts to falter a little bit. And maybe the traditional way of teaching isn't working for them.
"It was like every time we were doing the same topics, it was like starting from scratch. We then got the dyscalculia diagnosis. But it's not just as simple as getting them some extra support, it's a specific way of learning and teaching that can really benefit someone if that's what's going on. So if that's happening to you or someone in your life, someone you care about then reach out to the Dyscalculia Network because they really do have all the support that you need to help make maths not such a scary thing anymore."
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