My automatic spell check does not show anymore in macmail under monterey

Hi there, is anyone experiencing the same problem?

In MacMail my emails used to be automatically spell-checked but I don't know exactly when it stopped but think it has to do with Monterey. When writing an email I now have to actively go to Edit/ Spelling and Grammer to activate my spell check which is an additional and super annoying extra step.

How can I fix this?

And yes, there is a tick at check spelling while typing

Thanks in advance for any leads...

PS: Many issues with Macmail since upgrading to Monterey :-(