The Project’s Waleed Aly reveals the strange habit he once had for his ‘own personal satisfaction’ while writing columns for newspapers
Waleed Aly wrote columns for newspapers before becoming a regular host on Channel 10’s The Project.
And on Thursday, the 42-year-old shared the strange habit he once had to keep him interested in the subject at hand.
‘When I first started writing articles for the newspaper, you know how the very first letter of each article is big…’ he began, chatting to panelists Peter Helliar, Lisa Wilkinson and Tony Armstrong.
Jaw-dropping: The Project’s Waleed Aly revealed one of his strange habits on Thursday
‘Please say your first four articles spelled out “fart”,’ comedian Peter interjected.
Waleed brushed off the funnyman, before admitting he once set himself a target of beginning each article with a different letter of the alphabet.
Peter asked which letter was the hardest to start a sentence with, and Waleed said: ‘Probably Q.’
The 42-year-old explained: ‘You know how the very first letter of each article is big, they make big on the page… I set myself a target…’
He continued: ‘I think I came up with “Quite what someone was thinking”, but it’s interesting because it ended up making me write more interesting sentences.’
‘Is this the first time you’ve shared this? Like you’ve just done this for your own personal satisfaction?’ added Lisa Wilkinson.
‘I did it for myself, but you’re making me feel I shouldn’t have done it,’ said Waleed.
Quite the challenge: The TV presenter later noted that his quirky challenge ‘ended up making me write more interesting sentences’
Panellist and former AFL star Tony joked: ‘Weren’t you writing for the people?’ to which Waleed quipped: ‘No!’
Waleed is married to academic Susan Carland.
He has previously written articles for The Guardian, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Wordsmith: Waleed, who is married to academic Susan Carland (pictured), has previously written articles for other publications such as The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age