Leila McKinnon on her new braces: ‘It’s not perfect for a person who speaks for a living to have them’

A CURRENT Affair host Leila McKinnon has opened up about her new braces and her husband’s reaction to them, describing herself as “the world’s oldest adolescent”.

‘I hoped no one would notice’

A CURRENT Affair host Leila McKinnon says she was hoping no one would notice the new braces on her teeth, describing herself as “the world’s oldest adolescent”.

The 43-year-old had lingual braces applied four months ago to correct an anterior open bite which meant she was unable to chew food properly.

But viewers of the program were quick to notice something was different about her speech and she was forced to fess up on Twitter.

Thankth for your interetht in my lithp, yeth I have braceth now, not great in my job but I'm working on it @ACurrentAffair9 #ACA

— leilamckinnon (@leilamckinnon) January 4, 2016

Not a tongue piercing, not lip filler, but thanks for the theories. Just an awful open bite @ACurrentAffair9 #ACA

— leilamckinnon (@leilamckinnon) January 4, 2016

“I’m like the world’s oldest adolescent, it’s ridiculous,” she told 2Day FM’s Rove and Sam. “I was hoping no one would notice but I was kidding myself.

“It’s not perfect for a person who speaks for a living to have them, but as long as they didn’t have any stories about people selling sea shells by the sea shore, (I thought) I’d probably get away with it, but no.”

McKinnon said her husband David Gyngell found her speech so amusing that she practised reading aloud for a week solid to try and get used to her new orthodontics.

Leila McKinnon, host of A Current Affair.

“I had my husband rolling around on the floor laughing at me telling me that I’d never work again and that I sounded like I’d had a stroke, so I was aware that it might not be so good,” she said of his reaction, “but then I worked on it and worked on it and I took a week off work where I actually just went in and read scripts into the microphone and I thought I’d nailed it, but I might not have.”

McKinnon also said she was also mislead by the orthodontist who applied the braces.

“They kind of lie to you, they say ‘no it won’t affect your speech and no it won’t affect your eating and it won’t hurt, it will just be on for 12 to 15 months’ so I’m pinning my hopes on one more year.”

While the experienced newsreader has received plenty of support on social media, she still had an honest discussion with her boss about the feedback she’d received.

“I said to my boss ‘look, if you want to get rid of me, I understand’ but you know what it’s like in television, they’ll just watch the ratings and as long as the ratings are OK, I’ll be safe and if they’re not well goodbye.”