As unbelievable as it seems, 10 years ago none of us had heard of One Direction or Vicky Pattison, but now they’re some of the biggest earners in the country. And while the MIC and Geordie Shore gangs make money from appearing on even more reality shows, there are loads of other ways to rake in cash.
Financial advisor Lisa Conway-Hughes of Westminster Wealth Management says: “Stars have always earned great money from book deals, brand endorsements and voiceover/TV advertising.
“However, I’m seeing the power of lucrative Instagram partnerships in younger clients. Add in meet-and-greets and PAs at clubs, and it’s no wonder that four times as many applied for Love Island than Oxbridge this year.”
Moira O’Neill, head of personal finance at Interactive Investor adds: “Reality show stars can earn thousands of pounds from brands looking to jump on their fame. However, fame and fortune can fade just as quickly, so it’s important they invest their money well.”
So who’s the biggest and savviest reality TV earner of them all? Keep reading to see our top 30 rich list and find out!
THE RULES
No.30: Scarlett Moffatt, 28 – £1million
BEFORE finding fame on Channel 4’s Gogglebox in 2014, Scarlett worked on the checkouts in Asda.
And her bank balance has followed the same extraordinary journey. The Geordie joker won the 2016 series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! and earned a tidy £70k for taking part, which she used to pay off her parents’ mortgage.
Since she was voted Queen of the Jungle, opportunities have flooded in, including co-hosting Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, presenting Streetmate (formerly hosted by Davina McCall) on Channel 4, co-hosting the National Television Awards 2017 alongside Dermot O’Leary and covering Harry and Meghan’s wedding for BBC Radio 1.
She has also written two books, Sofa, So Good: Me Life Story and Scarlett Says.
Her bestselling fitness DVD Scarlett’s SuperSlim Me, which recently attracted controversy after it emerged she had attended a weight-loss boot camp in Switzerland, earned her another £100k.
And Scarlett wasted no time in spending her earnings. She’s just bought a new-build four-bed £300k property in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, complete with cinema and games room. How’s that for a reality cheque?
No.29: Binky Felstead, 28 – £1.6million
ALEXANDRA Elizabeth Felstead was one of the original members of Made In Chelsea when it first hit the small screen in 2011 – and it’s paid off, and then some! A string of ventures have built up her wealth over the past seven years.
In 2013, she launched her Binky London nail collection, then the following year her autobiography Being Binky became a bestseller. It’s been three years since her eponymous fashion range first dropped on In The Style and it continues to sell out weekly.
However, it’s in the last 12 months or so that Binky’s riches have really grown.
After giving birth to her daughter India in June 2017 and quitting MIC, she landed her own E4 spin-off show, Born In Chelsea, which showed her and boyfriend, former MIC star and fitness model Josh ‘JP’ Patterson, adapting to parenthood.
After dropping from a size 10-12 to an 8 over the years by exercising more and drinking less, Binky’s efforts were rewarded in 2017 with a six-figure deal to become the UK’s new ambassador for Reebok women, which she kicked off by starring in the spring/summer campaign last year.
Binks has also tapped into the lucrative new mum market by launching her own health and fitness business for new mums called Mummy Tribe, which runs retreats at up to £1,350 a pop.
She regularly collaborates with brands including Rimmel London, St Ives Skincare, Aspinal, Cybex, Elizabeth Arden and Danone, using Instagram to earn up to £6k per sponsored post.
She has spent some of her money on a property in west London’s affluent Fulham. Binky’s one business-savvy new mummy!
No.28: Georgia Toffolo, 23 – £1.8million
TOFF by name, Toff by nature: Georgia worked for The Lady magazine before joining the cast of Made In Chelsea in 2014 as one of Sam Thompson’s friends. And the E4 series made her a decent amount of cash. Prior to winning last year’s I’m A Celebrity!, Georgia’s estimated net worth was £800k.
Her income came from MIC, appearing on Celebs Go Dating, Instagram sponsorships, plus a role as head of events for a think tank called Parliament Street, which she has held since 2015.
Although she was only paid a fee of £13k to go into the jungle, Georgia has acquired notable earnings off the back of her bush capers.
She quickly secured a presenting job with This Morning, a column with The Sunday Times Style magazine and launched a lingerie line for With Love Lilly. She’s since been announced as the new face of Very’s #everydaylifegoals range and Dermalogica’s Clear Start campaign, plus she’s an ambassador for Great British Racing.
Her debut book Always Smiling: The World According To Toff was published last week – in good time for profitable pre-Christmas sales.
Money-mindful Georgia, who has now quit MIC to concentrate on TV work, recently invested in two plush holiday apartments in her home town of Torquay. Named after her, Tofino and Terrazza Giorgia are set to bring in up to £1,385 rent per week, which could earn her a cool £72k a year. She’s one hot property.
No.28: Millie Mackintosh, 29 – £1.8million
CAMILLA Margaret Mackintosh might be the great, great granddaughter of the guy who invented Quality Street chocolates, but she’s long been self-sufficient and insists there’ll be no bumper inheritance because her family sold the business years ago.
With that cleared up, let’s look at Millie’s money-spinners. She has her own beauty line, which she flogs through Boots, plus a jewellery collaboration with Dorothy Perkins.
Sadly, earlier this year Millie’s clothing business Cammac – which she sold through her own website as well as ASOS, Very Exclusive and 30 other retailers globally – went bust. This has reportedly left a dent of £178k in her £2m personal fortune.
Instagram is now Millie’s main money-making source. She was the one of the pioneers of paid-for Insta partnerships, and in 2014 plugged 13 brands.
Fast-forward to 2018 and her most recent endorsements include Bicester Village, Land Rover UK, Lancôme and Spotlight Whitening, which reportedly earn her around £5-6k per post.
In the past four months Millie has posted Insta pics from Marbella, Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire, Portugal, Greece, Austria, the Cotswolds and the Maldives, with every destination described in glowing terms because, well, they’re probably freebies. Life’s a real beach, huh?
After leaving MIC in 2012, Millie, who is an ambassador for Kérastase and the Investec Derby at Epsom, has made tentative moves back to TV with a guest role on Britain’s Next Top Model last year.
She lives in a multimillion-pound apartment in west London with Hugo Taylor, who she married this summer following a high-profile divorce in May 2016 from her husband of two years Stephen Manderson, AKA Professor Green. Quality, indeed.
No.26: Nadiya Hussain, 33 – £2million
Undoubtedly the biggest success story of The Great British Bake Off, Nadiya now has five lucrative cookbooks and multiple TV deals to her name after winning the nation’s hearts with her can-do attitude and cheerful disposition in series six in 2015.
Formerly a stay-at-home mum-of-three, in 2017 Nadiya was named by Debrett’s as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK.
On the back of her GBBO win, she signed a “huge deal” with the BBC for an undisclosed figure. As well as her cookbooks and novel The Secret Lives Of The Amir Sisters, she won magazine columns and fronted TV shows including The Chronicles of Nadiya, Junior Bake Off, Nadiya’s British Food Adventure, The Big Family Cooking Showdown and Nadiya’s Family Favourites.
However, last month the Beeb cancelled the two-part The Hajj about her pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city Mecca.
Last year, Nadiya was also a guest panellist on Loose Women and in 2016 she baked a 90th birthday cake for none other than the Queen. At the time of her GBBO win, Nadiya was predicted to rake in £1m within 12 months, but almost three years later, she has far exceeded that sum thanks to her TV and book deals.
She lives with husband Abdal, 35, and children Musa, 10, Dawad, nine, and Maryam, four, in Milton Keynes after selling their Victorian property in Leeds to be closer to their families.
No.25: Vicky Pattison, 25 – £2.2million
VICKY was one of the Geordie Shore originals, but she quit the show in 2014 after earning a reported £500k through endorsements, PAs and media deals.
She went on to star in a string of other programmes including Ex On The Beach, which earned her a reported £390k, and I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! – twice.
She finished as Queen of the Jungle in the 15th series in 2015, then earned a reported £250k for taking part in the Aussie version in South Africa earlier this year.
Vicky, who co-hosted I’m A Celebrity: Extra Camp before Scarlett Moffatt got the gig last year, has also presented a showbiz gossip segment on This Morning and became a regular panellist on Loose Women in 2016. The same year she joined Channel 5’s It’s Not Me, It’s You panel show for a six-figure sum.
Vicky has secured her own TV shows too. MTV’s Judge Geordie saw her attempting to resolve family and friendship feuds, then on MTV’s Ex On The Beach: Body SOS, Vicky got people fit following her own weight loss.
Her fitness DVD 7 Day Slim earned her a reported £160k. She has written three novels, an autobiography called Nothing But The Truth: My Story as well as lifestyle book The Real Me.
Plus she’s partnered with a string of fashion and beauty brands including Ann Summers.
One of Vicky’s biggest money-spinners has been her Mini V Nutrition supplement range, which brought in revenue in excess of £1m in its first year. It’s no wonder Vic has had enough dough to plough into property – she owns a home in Essex and two in Newcastle.
No.24: Amy Childs, 28 – £2.5million
FORMER beautician Amy is best known for starring in the first two series of The Only Way Is Essex from 2010, then Celebrity Big Brother in 2011 and The Jump in 2014 (and, er, introducing us to the vajazzle), but the Essex girl is also responsible for launching a string of businesses.
Previously worth a stonking £5m, Amy’s five companies – Welljell Limited, Amy Childs Enterprises Ltd, Dolly Diamonds Ltd, Amy Property Company Ltd and Key Fashion Ltd – now show a collective loss of £268.5k.
Another company, Celebrity Fashion Clothing Ltd, is also £27k under, while Amy Childs Beauty Salon, a business she co-owns with manager Claire Powell, is just in the black by £61.
Since the 2017 closure of Amy Childs Boutique, the store Amy set up after departing TOWIE, she sells her clothing through online fashion shop Sistaglam, which shows assets of just £730.
So where does this leave Amy, who became a mum for the first time in April 2017 and is due to give birth to her second any day? The good news is that she has proved a canny investor over the years and ploughed plenty of money into bricks and mortar.
So despite her £5m fortune having reduced almost by half, with multiple properties to her name, Amy’s wealth is still substantial.
No.24: Charlotte Crosby, 28 – £2.5million
GEORDIE Shore’s most famous bed-wetter won Celebrity Big Brother in 2013 for a fee “approaching six figures”. Since departing the MTV show in 2016, she has also starred in Celebs Go Dating, Just Tattoo Of Us, Single AF and her own fly-on-the-wall series The Charlotte Show.
Charlotte has also undergone one of the most dramatic transformations in reality TV history. As well as a raft of cosmetic surgery, she has profited from shrinking her body from a size 16 to a 10.
Her Charlotte’s 3 Minute Belly Blitz DVD – a collaboration with celebrity fitness guru Jayne Irvine – became platinum-selling and knocked Disney’s Frozen off the top of the DVD chart, earning her a rumoured £250k as part of a three-part deal. Charlotte’s 3 Minute Bum Blitz followed, then in April 2016 she published health and fitness book Live Fast, Lose Weight: Fat To Fit, which follows her bestselling autobiographies Me Me Me and Brand New Me. Her latest book, 30-Day Blitz, has been out since the start of the year.
Charlotte’s fashion and beauty sense has paid dividends, too. Her Nostalgia fashion line launched through UK retailer In The Style in 2014 continues to be a big seller. In 2017 she released a make-up line, Flique, which now includes a range of hair extensions in association with Easilocks, plus she has earned six figures as the face of Mark Hill hair products.
With an army of 6.4m Instagram followers and 13m fans across all her social channels, Charlotte can command £75k per sponsorship deal as one of a new breed of super-influencers. Such is her power to persuade, Jamie Oliver invited her to join him on a live Facebook stream to launch his Food Revolution.
Accounts for Charlotte’s CLC Enterprise company show current assets of £1.48m and although His And Hers Enterprise Limited – the merchandise company she owned with ex Stephen Bear – has fizzled out, she has another £1m tied into the custom-built mansion she moved into in 2016. It’s official: Charlotte’s star is still on the rise.
No.22: Megan McKenna – £2.6million
Before joining TOWIE, feisty former Ex On The Beach star Megan was thought to be worth £285k – small change compared to her wealth since rising up the reality TV ranks.
Megs got paid a reported £30k for her appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in 2016, then became a household name on TOWIE, and has since braved it in a charity special of ITV celebrity strip show The Real Full Monty. But her business ventures are earning her the prettiest penny.
When her Mouthy cosmetics line – the same moniker as her June 2018 bestselling autobiography – launched in 2016, her lip kits, priced at £29.95, sold out within days. Her Megan McKenna Bouncy Blow hair line retails through Easilocks at £59.99 and she’s also collaborated with clothing brand MissPap on a fashion collection.
With 2.1m Instagram followers, Megan can earn up to £8k a pop for recommending brands such as Hairburst through sponsored posts. Yet here’s the craziest thing – she’s also en route to country music stardom. She unsuccessfully auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent in 2009 then The X Factor in 2013 and 2014.
But in a surprising twist, she knocked her idol Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa off the top of the iTunes chart last September when her debut song High Heeled Shoes was released.
Megan’s bid to break the lucrative country music market in Nashville by performing for record label bosses has been documented in ITVBe’s There’s Something About Megan, and this summer she performed at Cornbury Music Festival and opened for Michael Bublé on the main stage at Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time in Hyde Park Excitingly, Megan has been working on new material with Amy Wadge, the woman who co-wrote Ed Sheeran’s epic hit Thinking Out Loud.
However, the year hasn’t been without disappointment. Megan split from boyfriend “Muggy” Mike Thalassitis and her restaurant McK Grill went into voluntary liquidation in July.
But, encouragingly, her company accounts show profits of £163.5k. Megan lives in an Essex mansion, which she bought in 2016.
No.21: Gemma Collins, 37 – £2.7million
THOSE nude selfies, the deadpan one liners, plunging through the BBC Radio 1 Teen Choice Awards stage, that orange prison jumpsuit… The GC has sure made us LOL over the years, but now Essex’s most famous diva is having the last laugh – all the way to the hole in the wall.
Still a regular in TOWIE, which she joined in 2011, Gem earns around £300 a day filming for ITVBe. She even landed her own one-off show that premiered on the channel last month.
Gemma has commanded bumper fees for appearing on TV shows over the years, including Splash!, This Morning, Celebs Go Dating and Celebrity Big Brother, which earned her £100k. After lasting just 72 hours in the I’m A Celebrity! jungle in 2014, she donated her £4,800 fee to starving children, and has appeared on this year’s Celebrity MasterChef.
But it’s Gemma new job with Netflix, working on Orange Is The New Black’s social media campaigns for an undisclosed sum, that is really inflating her star status.
When it comes to her businesses, Gemma Collins Boutique in Brentwood went into voluntary liquidation in July with a reported £80k debt, but all is definitely not lost.
Accounts for Gemma Collins Limited show profits of £56,337, and over the summer Gemma unveiled her new cash cow – a store in Marbella plus plans for another.
Gemma’s plus-size fashion line is also for sale on her website as well as Evans, Simply Be and Boohoo, with whom she launched her second beach and swimwear collection in May.
She has released two books – her 2013 autobiography Basically: My Real Life As an Essex Girl sold just over 9,000 copies, while her most recent, The GC: How To Be A Diva went on sale in June. Four months before they split (again) in July, former car saleswoman Gemma announced on TOWIE that she and James Argent had splashed out on a Spanish holiday home (oops).
She also owns an apartment in Essex worth a quarter of a million. Gemma has confessed to making a sex tape that she’d happily sell for £1million.
Though with plenty of bucks in the bank, we don’t reckon she needs to do a Kim K just yet…
No.20: Chloe Khan, 27 – £3million
FEW could have imagined a life of riches for Chloe Khan after her disastrous appearance on The X Factor in 2010. Then known as Chloe Victoria, the mum-of-one’s audition was a shambles and she was later hit with drug-taking and escorting claims, which she denied.
Today, Chloe doesn’t just look totally different after thousands of pounds of cosmetic surgery, but her life is a world away the tough council estate upbringing she had in Wakefield, Yorkshire.
Chloe earns around £40k a month stripping off for OnlyFans, an explicit app that allows fans to pay her £15.55 per month for exclusive content.
With 1.4m Instagram followers, she can earn up to £25k from social media collaborations with brands, and although Chloe has never revealed her exact five-figure fee for appearing on Celebrity Big Brother in 2016, insiders say it was “definitely generous for a model”. Her income is bolstered by beauty and fashion brand endorsements, modelling assignments, personal appearances, photo syndication sales and the commission she earns from managing webcam models.
Chloe has stopped her own webcam work to concentrate on other commitments, but when she was running her webcam company Everyone’s Secret, she reportedly turned over £1million in 2016.
Chloe, who now lives in Dubai where there is no income tax, owns two properties in Leeds: a £600,000 four-bed house that she bought for her mum, plus a six-bedroom home nearby.
No.19: Gaz Beadle, 30 – £3.1million
A GAZ Beadle business empire? Who would have thought Geordie Shore’s most notorious party animal (and his famous parsnip) had it in him? Former tiler Gary, who in 2014 admitted he “easily” makes £40-45k per month from doing £2,000-a-night PAs, has wisely invested every penny from his success.
He rose to fame with his role on the MTV show, which led to stints on TV programmes including Ex On The Beach, Drunk History, Big Brother’s Bit On The Side, Celebrity Wedding Planner, Britain’s Got More Talent and Hell’s Kitchen Australia.
Gary, who left Geordie Shore last August after six years, drives a £75k Range Rover SVR and says he now employs more than 60 staff to keep his various ventures spinning.
There’s the 11 Degrees clothing range he co-owns worth an impressive £1.2m, his x-rated emoji app brand Gazmoji, as well as Pure Beach Club, a nightspot on Greek party island Zante. Gary, from Hexham, Northumberland, has a further £682.5k in his company Gary Beadle Promotions Limited, and property investments including a three-storey home in the north of England with Emma McVey, his girlfriend and the mum of his eight-month-old son Chester, plus a house he bought for his father.
He’s also talked in the past of plans to snap up student accommodation in Liverpool to create Gaz-style party digs.
His face (and body) clearly sells. As well as his autobiography Gaz (And My Parsnip), he’s fronted a bestselling calendar and toured with The Dreamboys male stripper act.
No.18: Lucy Mecklenburgh, 27 – £3.5million
BACK when Lucy earned just £50 a day on TOWIE in 2010, baring her soul and her frequently broken heart in the name of public entertainment, few could have imagined she would become a multimillionaire.
But at the tender age of 27, after reinventing herself as a fitness guru, Lucy is exactly that. In 2013, she launched Results With Lucy, an online nutrition and fitness programme, and it’s now the UK’s largest online fitness provider with 250,000 subscribers plus a new pre- and post-natal focus, Results With Bump. Lucy’s health bible Be Body Beautiful was released in 2015, the same year she was the face and body of Ellesse sportswear.
Other brand collaborations include Barry M, Boots Botanics skincare, Pretty Little Thing, Boux Avenue, By Caprice lingerie and WMN protein supplement.
Happily, her first business venture Lucy’s Boutique is also still going strong. She runs two Essex-based stores in Brentwood and Southend-on-Sea plus an online shop and although company accounts show losses of over £90k, her website states that she’s soon set to launch a fashion collection that has been years in the making.
She competed in ITV’s Tumble in 2014, as well as Channel 5 cycling show Tour De Celeb in 2016. A year later she took part in Celebrity Island With Bear Grylls, where she met her actor boyfriend Ryan Thomas.
Lucy has over £1.5m tied up in three Essex properties – two rental flats and a three-bedroom house in Brentwood that she spent £100k on renovating, though she has revealed she saves 50% of her income. A proper Brentwood businesswoman.
No.17: James Arthur, 30 – £4million
SINCE winning The X Factor in 2012 and achieving the biggest-selling single by an X Factor winner with his debut, a cover of Shontelle’s Impossible, James has enjoyed immense highs. But there have also been big lows. The star has battled anxiety and insecurities that he once described as “a bit of a prison sentence”.
In 2014, the singer was dropped by Syco Music after a string of controversies including using homophobic language in his rap lyrics. Fast-forward two years and after quitting the drugs he was using to self-medicate his anxiety, Sony Columbia Germany signed James and his return was so triumphant Syco speedily re-signed him.
Single Say You Won’t Let Go rocketed to the top of the UK music charts in September 2016 and hit No.27 in the American Billboard Hot 100, while album Back From The Edge was also a UK chart-topper. He’s currently working on his third album with none other than Craig David.
It’s an extraordinary second chance in an industry that rarely gives them, and this time Middlesbrough-born James is doing things properly.
He’s invested in a London apartment, is contemplating buying a pad in LA and earlier this year thanked fans for lining his pockets sufficiently to buy homes for his mum and sisters.
Last year, after touring America, Japan, Europe and the UK, James admitted: “My bank statement’s looking pretty healthy at the moment.” He’d better get used to it!
No.16: Rylan Clark-Neal, 29 – £4.5million
FROM X Factor flop to prime-time favourite, Rylan sure has pulled in the pennies since his memorable performances on the 2012 series, a year after he competed in Katie Price’s modelling show Signed By Katie Price.
His June 2016 memoir was a Sunday Times bestseller, but it’s Rylan’s TV presenting jobs that have made his finances sparkle as brightly as those infamous veneers.
Rylan netted a reported £250k for competing in the 2013’s Celebrity Big Brother (he won it, natch) and now hosts BB’s spin-off show Bit On The Side. He’s been a piece of the This Morning presenting furniture since 2014 when he was recruited as a showbiz reporter, and landed his own Channel 5 chat show Up Late With Rylan in 2015 – the year he reached the final of Celebrity MasterChef.
Then in 2016 Rylan came full circle, co-hosting The Xtra Factor alongside Matt Edmondson. More recently, he’s presented ITV shows The Wave and Babushka and was part of the BBC’s commentary team at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
Rylan’s company Rylan Ltd currently displays a net worth of just over £535k, but his money has sensibly also been ploughed into a £1m five-bed bungalow in Essex with its own BB-style “diary room” plus other savvy cash investments.
Despite admitting he’s prone to daft buys such as a £14k hedge that died after he forgot to water it, Rylan says he’s fastidious about putting aside money for his VAT and tax bills the moment he gets paid. Well done that man!
No.15: Collabro – £5million
MUSICAL theatre boy band Collabro – Jamie Lambert, 29, Michael Auger, 28, Matt Pagan, 28, Thomas Redgrave, 28 and Richard Hadfield, 24 – stormed to victory on Britain’s Got Talent in 2014 and promptly signed a record deal with Simon Cowell’s Syco.
Their debut album Stars, released in August 2014, shot to No.1 in the UK charts and their second offering, Act Two, debuted at No.2 in June 2015 following the announcement of a US record deal with Sony Masterworks worth £1m.
Then came trouble. In 2016, Richard quit the group, later citing “conflicts” with his fellow band members, and Syco dropped them. But the remaining boys weren’t left high and dry for long.
They’ve since launched their own record label, Peak Productions, and are now managing themselves.
Live performances are where Collabro, who have all invested in property, have drummed up the majority of their income. They’ve spent four years touring the globe, particularly in America, Canada and Japan, where much of their fanbase is located.
Following the release of their third album Home, the boys are preparing for their sixth tour, taking in 51 UK dates in 2019 and finishing at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
No.14: Mark Wright, 31 – £5.2million
WHEN former-semi-pro footballer Mark quit TOWIE in 2011, he leapt straight into the I’m A Celeb! jungle and finished in second place with two ambitions – to “reach for the stars” and “be the next James Bond”. He’s certainly well on his way to achieving the former, if not the latter!
Mark’s been grafting to build his profile – modelling Littlewoods menswear in a £200k deal, reporting on Surprise Surprise and presenting Take Me Out: The Gossip and CBBC’s BAFTA-nominated show The Dengineers.
He enjoyed a five-year stint hosting Heart FM’s Club Classics and in 2014 competed in Strictly Come Dancing (though let’s not mention the flop ITV2 show Party Wright Around The World). And it looks as if his hard work is paying off. Now Mark is in Tinseltown co-hosting Extra, one of America’s longest-running entertainment news shows, alongside former X Factor USA host Mario Lopez.
When he’s not interviewing Hollywood’s biggest stars, Brentwood boy Mark manages his home-grown money-spinners – successful modelling agency The Wright Look Models, currently worth just over £1m, and his property business Chigwell Properties Ltd.
Although this is showing losses of £15k, Mark is set to earn a £3m profit from a huge property renovation in Chigwell after turning a seven-bedroomed property he bought three years ago for almost £2m into four three-storey terraced houses.
However, he borrowed cash from his actress wife Michelle Keegan (over £700k) and sister Jessica (£58k) to help fund the building work. Mark and Michelle also own a mansion worth £2m in Chigwell and there’s talk of an imminent property investment in LA.
No.13: Spencer Matthews, 30 – £5.9million
He might have made a stack of cash since finding fame on Made In Chelsea, but Spencer was already earning a reported £100k a year as a foreign exchange trader when he started filming the show, which he starred in until series 10.
The money has rolled in ever since – Spenny’s deal with Pan Macmillan in 2013 to publish his memoir Confessions Of A Chelsea Boy was rumoured to be worth £80k and over the years he has appeared on a variety of prime-time TV shows.
In 2012, he starred in The Bachelor UK and three years on he won a coveted spot on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!, but left after three days amid speculations of steroid use, apparently forfeiting his £50k fee. In 2017, Spencer redeemed himself by winning Channel 4’s The Jump and later that year was the standout star on E4’s Five Star Hotel. He’s most recently been whipping up a frenzy on Celebrity MasterChef.
Of course Eton-educated Spenny had something of a headstart in life – his father is landowner and entrepreneur David Matthews, who owns luxe hotel resort Eden Rock in St Barths, which was voted the No.1 hotel in the world by Conde Nast Traveller.
But Spencer doesn’t have access to the family fortune and insists he doesn’t rely on handouts. He commands in excess of £4k for a public appearance and runs high-end jewellery business Eden Rocks, which he set up with pal Neil Duttson. Producing jewellery for some of the world’s best hotels and bespoke engagement rings, the business is looking to turn over around £500k in its first year.
Spencer owns two properties – one in Chelsea and another in Battersea – totalling approximately £5m and on top of a designer watch collection, has money tied up in investments.
He married TV presenter, DJ and model Vogue Williams, 32, in June at his family’s 30,000-acre Glen Affric Estate in Cannich, Scotland, four months after he proposed with a diamond engagement ring worth an estimated £150k.
The couple are expecting their first baby any day now.
No.12: Joey Essex, 28 – £6million
By his own admission, he can’t tell the time and thinks that a square has six sides, but Joey Essex is all brains when it comes to turning pennies into pounds.
After joining TOWIE in 2011, he built an empire through his fragrances, his range of D’Reem hair products that banked him a cool £500k, Being Reem, his Sunday Times bestselling autobiography, plus £10k-a-pop PAs.
Since he departed the ITVBe show in 2013 – the year he and then-girlfriend Sam Faiers starred in a Volvic TV ad – Joey has raked it in with lucrative deals.
He earned £60k to brave the I’m A Celebrity! jungle in 2013, the same year he competed in ITV’s Splash!, then a year later landed his own two-series ITV2 show Educating Joey Essex. In 2015, he took home a cool £250k for The Jump, making him the highest-paid celeb on the show (he beat Mike Tindall in the final).
Joey, who’s recently appeared on Celebs Go Dating and Five Star Hotel, also tried his luck with his Fusey clothing range, but it was dissolved in 2016, paying him a profit of just £26k.
Accounts for Joey Essex Management Ltd show assets of £404.6k and he’s ploughed a further £1.6m into his gaff in Essex’s Chigwell, complete with pool and tennis court. Reem!
No.12: Ollie Locke, 31 – £6million
OLLIE was the first person to come out as bisexual on British reality TV when he discussed his sexuality in front of the cameras on Made In Chelsea in 2011.
Then he published Laid In Chelsea: My Life Uncovered, which became a Sunday Times bestseller. Ollie left the show in 2013, but made a return this year for series 15 as well this summer’s Croatia special.
Since finding fame, Southampton-born Ollie has appeared on Britain’s Got More Talent, 2014’s Celebrity Big Brother (where he finished third), 8 Out Of 10 Cats, The Island With Bear Grylls and Celebs Go Dating. He also had a cameo in ITV2 comedy Plebs, playing Roman hipster Aloysius.
But his most shrewd career move was launching gay dating app Chappy with co-founders Jack Rogers and Maxim Cheremkhin. The free app, which launched last year and is backed by Whitney Wolfe, who famously left Tinder to set up Bumble, hit 1 million swipes after three weeks of its launch last year.
Although Ollie’s family are undoubtedly well-off – his grandfather’s family invented long-haul flight technology and his mother is a successful radio journalist – Ollie has accumulated impressive wealth of his own.
He sold his bachelor apartment in west London for just under £650k, and now lives in a property in the same area worth £1.5m.
No.10: Marvin Humes, 33 – £7million
MARVIN'S path to fame began at the age of 14 in kids’ TV show K-Club, before he starred in BBC’s Holby City for three years. But it was his music career that set Marvin on the path to fortune. When his band JLS finished as runners-up in the 2008 series of The X Factor, they were promptly signed by Epic Records.
Their first album sold over a million copies in the UK and the band, which comprised Oritsé Williams, 31, JB Gill, 31, and Aston Merrygold, 30, produced five albums, selling more than 10 million copies worldwide.
After the end of the Goodbye – The Greatest Hits Tour, the band split in 2013. Each member was worth around £6m and Marvin embarked on a second career in television.
He and wife Rochelle, 29, became regular holiday stand-ins for Holly and Phil on ITV’s This Morning and in January 2014, he began co-presenting The Voice UK with Emma Willis on BBC1.
Marvin has worked for Capital FM for five years and hosts a weeknight show plus Sunday’s Big Top 40.
He also plays DJ sets to crowds around the world. His dance music trio LuvBug, which he helped set up, were signed to Polydor Records in 2014 and the group shows assets of £110k. Marvelle Media, a company he owns with Rochelle, has a net worth of £386k.
As well as receiving royalties from JLS’s remaining business SloJo Entertainments Ltd, Marvin has a substantial pension.
He and Rochelle sold their home to Niall Horan for £2.2m and bought a £1.7m six-bedroom Grade II listed mansion in 2015. The couple spent a year renovating it before moving in with daughters Alaia-Mai, five, and Valentina, 18 months.
No.9: Sam Faiers, 27 – £7.5million
Sam has been hard at it since leaving TOWIE in 2014 and is now ITV’s highest-paid reality TV star after negotiating a whopping £350k deal for another three series of her hit show The Mummy Diaries, which launched in 2016.
Documenting her journey as a new parent to Paul, two, and Rosie, 10 months, the show follows her first programme The Baby Diaries and is the highest-rated show in ITVBe’s history, meaning it beats TOWIE.
Now Sam’s fame is spreading Stateside. The rights to series one of The Mummy Diaries has been snapped up by Netflix for a reported £150k and Sam’s Dreamiie pushchair and baby range is also selling like hot cakes in US superstore Walmart, as well as Mothercare in the UK.
She has three books to her name including her tell-all memoir Secrets And Lies, which earned her an impressive £750k.
Her two fragrances have been even more successful than her TV ventures, netting her in excess of seven figures. La Bella outsold perfumes by 1D and Britney Spears, and a third is due for release next year.
On top of an eyelash range, self-tan collection and a haircare tool brand sold at Argos and Very, where her eponymous clothing line is also stocked, Sam run Minnie’s Boutique – three stores and an online shop – with her sister Billie, 28. All Bits London, Sam’s new fashion line with husband Paul Knightley, is expected to turn over £1.8million this year.
Ever the entrepreneur, Sam has more projects in the pipeline. Home furnishings and accessories is her next venture and ahead of the launch of her new range in 2019, she’s received a reported £500k advance.
Sam’s £150k fee for starring in Celebrity Big Brother in 2014 already seems like small change when you take into account her multiple buy-to-let properties in Essex and London plus her new £2.9m family home in Hertfordshire. Where Sam’s concerned, the only way is… richer!
No.8: Olly Murs, 34 – £9million
PRIOR to auditioning for The X Factor, Olly worked in a jam factory and had racked up debts of £4k. But finishing second in the sixth series of the talent show in 2009 behind Joe McElderry changed his life – and credit rating – for good.
Singer-songwriter Olly entered the charts at No.1 in August 2010 and his self-titled debut album reached No.2 three months later. He’s since released four further hit records and is currently working on a sixth.
With his cheeky-chappy personality and standout talent, television was an obvious route for Olly. In 2011 and 2012, he co-presented The Xtra Factor with Caroline Flack for a reported £250k per year.
He climbed the ladder in 2015, filling Dermot O’Leary’s shoes as the main show’s host on a £500k pay packet, then jumped ship in 2017 to join The Voice UK as a mentor alongside will.i.am, Tom Jones and Jennifer Hudson. He is expected to return for a second series in January.
Inspired by his granddad, who told him to “get some money behind you, get on the property ladder”, Olly is doing just that. In 2011, he bought a four-bedroom house near his family home in Chelmsford, Essex, while he also owns an investment flat in Chelsea. Together his properties are thought to be worth in excess of £1.5m.
In 2016 Olly revealed he pays himself the same salary as a plumber in order to keep himself grounded and in anticipation of any future career catastrophes. His prudence has paid off. Olly’s company Icydk Ltd boasts assets worth an eye-popping £7.3m.
No.7: Susan Boyle, 57 – £26million
SUSAN didn’t win Britain’s Got Talent when she competed in 2009 – but that hasn’t stopped her becoming one of the show’s most famous and wealthiest contestants. She has since released seven albums, selling more than 22 million globally.
Her first, I Dreamed A Dream, was the fastest-selling UK album of all time and shifted more than 700,000 copies in the US in its first week. A musical about Susan’s life, also called I Dreamed A Dream, toured the UK and Ireland in 2012 and she performed on sell-out tours in both the UK and America in 2014.
She made a cameo appearance in 2016’s Zoolander 2, though had her first acting cameo in 2013, playing the wife of a churchwarden in The Christmas Candle. Earlier this year, Susan returned to the stage for a charity concert in Liverpool in aid of Alder Hey Hospital, and her eighth studio album will be released soon.
Susan still lives in her ex-council house in her Scottish hometown of Blackburn, West Lothian – her first purchase after finding fame – and has since bought two other properties in the area. She continues to live relatively frugally, previously admitting that the most expensive items she owns are a £300 faux-fur coat and a bottle of Chanel No.5.
Very generous with her fortune, she donates to several charities and has helped family members by paying off mortgages, household bills and debts.
In 2012 Susan’s wealth was reported to be £22million and as she’s barely spent anything since, her bank balance will have accumulated a staggering £700k interest per year on a basic interest rate, pushing her worth up to just over £26million.
No.6: Zayn Malik, 25 – £36million
AFTER Zayn Malik (or Zayn as he’s now known) shocked the world by quitting One Direction in 2015 – a decision estimated to have cost him £5m in lost tour earnings (ouch!) – he quickly proved he knew what he was doing.
Since signing a big-money deal with RCA Records in 2015, Zayn has flown out of the solo starting blocks. His 2016 debut single Pillowtalk topped the UK charts and entered the US Billboard Hot 100 at No.1, hitting 80 million streams globally.
When his first album Mind Of Mine dropped in 2016, Zayn made history by becoming the first male UK solo artist to debut at No.1 on both the US Billboard 200 and the Official UK Albums Chart. His second solo album Dusk Till Dawn is expected imminently.
But here’s the genius small print: in electing to launch his own publishing company Drop-Zed in 2014, Zayn retains ownership of copyright to all his songs and it’s paying him handsomely. Current assets exceed £6.4m and a further £230k are in his two other companies.
Away from the mic, Zayn landed a cameo in this summer’s Ocean’s 8 film and now boasts haute fashion elite status after not only collaborating with shoe designer Giuseppe Zanotti, but also joining forces with Donatella Versace to design a capsule collection for the Italian fashion house’s younger, more accessible Versace Versus range – a deal said to be worth millions. The Zayn X Versus fashion line dropped in May 2017 with Zayn modelling in campaign shots produced by girlfriend Gigi Hadid.
In the wake of their temporary break-up in March 2018, Zayn reportedly spent £7.2m on a bachelor pad in Manhattan to sit alongside his £4m north London mansion and £280k four-bedroom house in his hometown of Bradford where his mum Trisha lives. He famously splashed out on a £32k on Bentley Continental, despite not knowing how to drive.
No.5: Little Mix – £40million
CREATED in 2011 after auditioning as solo artists on series eight of The X Factor, Little Mix, AKA Jesy Nelson, 27, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, 26, Jade Thirlwall, 25, and Perrie Edwards, 25, went on to win the show. The first group in the show’s history to bag the top spot, they then signed to Simon Cowell’s Syco Music label.
Three years ago they were worth £3million each, but within the last 12 months their wealth has grown by 67%, with good reason. Their four albums have gone platinum in the UK, while their single Shout Out To My Ex won the girls Best British Single at the 2017 Brit Awards.
Their third album, Glory Days, was one of 2017’s biggest-selling records, shifting more than 96,000 copies in the first week. Last year, the band’s Glory Days tour took £31m, not including income from supporting Ariana Grande on the North American leg of her Dangerous Woman tour, which saw them perform 30 shows.
In their first year alone the girls made £3.5m in music and merchandise sales, including Little Mix headphones, dolls, puzzles, accessories and games, plus hugely successful perfumes.
There have also been brand endorsement deals aplenty, from a kids’ clothing range in Primark to a range of Elegant Touch nails and a collaboration with Schwarzkopf Live Colour XXL to promote their selection of hair dyes.
Then in 2016 they became global ambassadors of sportswear company USA Pro. There’s now even talk of a Little Mix fashion exhibition by the same team who curated this summer’s SpiceUp London expo about the Spice Girls. Little Mix, you’re unstoppable!
No.4: Louis Tomlinson, 26 – £42million
LOUIS’ solo career had a tough start following 1D’s hiatus. His debut solo single Just Hold On with EDM star Steve Aoki was released just days after his mother Johannah passed away in 2016. But following an emotional performance on the X Factor series finale, the track hit No.2 in the UK charts.
The following year he reached No.8 with Back To You, and although track Miss You failed to light up the Top 40, Louis bagged top male artist at the 2018 Teen Choice Awards, so it’s clear his fans are still behind him, and his debut album is expected later this year.
He launched his record label Triple Strings Ltd in 2015 and has since signed 2014 X Factor finalist Jack Walton plus girl group Did Alice Call.
But it’s his foray into prime-time TV that’s really racking up the cash. Simon Cowell has reportedly shelled out £4m for Louis to join the judging panel of this series of The X Factor.
And Louis is investing his cash wisely. He bought his eight-bed home in LA’s Calabasas for £7.8m in 2015 and put it on the market this year for over £10m.
He also owns a £5.7m house in the Hollywood Hills and a £2.25m London home. Two-year-old son Freddie looks set to inherit a substantial nest egg.
No.3: Niall Horan, 24 – £46million
NIALL wasted no time starting over after 1D called a halt to proceedings in 2016. The County-Westmeath-born singer cut ties with Simon Cowell’s Syco label and signed a deal thought to be worth in excess of £4m with Capitol Records US.
Since then he’s released four singles, and debut album Flicker topped the American chart after its release in 2017 and reached No.3 in the UK. Niall is currently on an 80-date world tour, which should earn him close to £9m.
When 1D parted ways, a share repurchasing deal for their company delivered a £70m payment between the band, on top of the £38m received in previous years.
The Irishman has ploughed his cash into companies that collectively boast assets of £1.8m.
Niall is a shrewd property investor.
As well as London and LA pads, he owns a glass-fronted apartment in the capital with its own penthouse cocktail bar. Standard.
No.2: Liam Payne, 25 – £54million
WHILE Liam may be a fast mover in his personal life, going public with new beau Cairo Dwek just six weeks after splitting from Cheryl, in business he prefers the slow game. He was the last member of One Direction to launch a solo career, which he did in May 2017 with the release of racy Strip That Down, co-written by Ed Sheeran, Steve Mac and Quavo.
His patience paid off when the single shifted 5 million copies globally and was streamed more than 70 million times. Since then, Liam’s released three more tracks, including For You with Rita Ora from the Fifty Shades Freed soundtrack, and his album is due to drop next month.
Liam set up his publishing company Hampton Music Limited in 2014, almost two years before 1D went on their break, and began producing material for other artists including Cheryl, which made him the band’s top earner that year.
He and Louis were also directors of One Mode Productions Limited, which signed Australian band 5 Seconds Of Summer, from 2012 until 2015.
He owns a £9.8m pad in California, which he snapped up in late 2015 for £7.6m, and has recently started renting out for a staggering £46k per month. Since moving out of the £5m Surrey home where Cheryl continues to live with their son Bear, Liam has been renting a London bachelor pad and has reportedly appointed divorce lawyers to protect his fortune.
Over the years Liam has made sure to spread the love. While he splurged on a £260k Lamborghini, he also bought his parents a £400k Wolverhampton home and a £20k BMW. One Christmas he even blew £3.5k on festive decorations – what a star!
No.1: Harry Styles, 24 – £56million
THE One Direction boys dominate our Top 10, but it’s Mr Styles who tops our rich list, thanks to the £62m three-album solo deal that he signed with Sony Music UK’s Columbia Records in 2016.
Harry has wisely set up his own record company, Erskine Records, where the rights to all his solo work are likely to revert after his Columbia licence deal ends. What’s more, through his publishing company HSA Publishing, which boasts assets of £1.58m, Hazza retains the copyright to all his self-penned music, which means even more cash.
And of course he’s sitting pretty on the money he earned from his 1D days: £38m to be precise. So how has he done it? In short, with the support of his uber-loyal fans. His first single Sign Of The Times shot to No.1 in April 2017, as did his self-titled debut album, which shifted more than 1 million copies to become the ninth-biggest-selling album in the world in 2017.
Harry recently wrapped an 89-date global solo tour, racking up in excess of £48m from more than 800,000 tickets, and squeezed in a live performance at the Victoria’s Secret show in China. And it’s not just singing that’s stacking the cash.
He’s the star of Gucci’s new men’s campaign and is also the exec producer on CBS’s Happy Together, a sitcom inspired by the time he spent living in producer Ben Winston’s attic after appearing on The X Factor. He’s also ventured in front of the camera for Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, which went on to win three Oscars.
Harry hasn’t held back from spending his fortune. He owns a £3.4m pad in north London, a £6m pied-à-terre in New York complete with 71ft pool, and a West Hollywood mansion – which went on the market for £6.5m and should earn him a tidy £1.3m profit on completion.
He’s got a fleet of flash motors, including a £143k Ferrari, a £100k classic mid-90s Porsche 911, a £118k E-Type Jaguar, a £105k Mercedes-Benz plus a Ford Capri, an Audi R8, and a Range Rover Sport.
Just when you thought Harry couldn’t bring home any more bacon, get this – he still receives regular royalties from 1D’s joint company PPM Music Limited, which has a net worth of £2m. Er, Harry, can you lend us a tenner?
MEET THE REALITY TV STARS SNAPPING AT THEIR HEELS…
- Dani Dyer, 22, Love Island
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- Gabby Allen, 26, Love Island
- Tokio Myers, 34, BGT
- Pete Wicks, 29, TOWIE
- Jack Fincham, 26, Love Island
- Megan Barton-Hanson, 24, Love Island
- Chloe Lewis, 27, TOWIE
- Liam Charles, 20, GBBO
- Rak-Su, 25-27, The X Factor
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