Countryfile presenter Matt Baker has revealed he was hospitalised after discovering he had a pork allergy during a work trip to Nuremberg, Germany. The 48-year-old had travelled to the city to pick up a donkey for a segment on Blue Peter, which he presented from 1999 to 2006.
During the trip, Baker visited a market with his wife, where they sampled several pork-based items. In the early hours of the following morning, he suffered an anaphylactic shock.
Wife's presence 'thank goodness'
Baker expressed his gratitude that his then girlfriend, now his wife, was with him during the incident. "Thank goodness my then girlfriend, who's now my wife, came with us because I had an anaphylactic shock on the bathroom floor from pork," he said.
He later learned that the allergy runs in his family, with his mother having always been unable to eat pork. However, he had never connected this to himself, having previously enjoyed pork crackling. He believes eating such a large amount in one go "tipped [him] over the edge," and he has not been able to eat pork since.
Return to filming and other health conditions
After being treated in hospital, Baker returned to filming the following day because of his work commitments. This is not the first time he has spoken openly about his health; in a recent interview, he revealed he has been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia.
Dyslexia, in particular, made him fearful of presenting live on television, where he would often have to read from an autocue. He told The Yorkshire Post in 2022: "The scariest thing someone can do to me is hand me an email on live television and ask me to read it out. It does something to me. It’s absolutely petrifying. Whatever I read, I learn. I block it all out in ways which means I can recognise sentences."
He added: "We [people with dyslexia] recognise words but we don’t read them as such. It’s like flash cards all the time. If you see something, you say what you think it is and then you dig yourself out of it if you’re wrong."
Career and current projects
Baker previously fronted The One Show, a live evening programme, alongside Alex Jones, stepping away from the role in 2019 after nine years. He has since set up his own production company alongside executive producer Gareth Collett.
The shows they have created so far include Our Dream Farm with Matt Baker and Our Farm in the Dales. Countryfile airs tonight at 7pm on BBC One.
