31 October 2024
Gail Porter had to ask for a job in a shop at the height of her fame.
Gail Porter had to ask for a job in a shop at the height of her fame
The 53-year-old star - who lost all of her hair after being diagnosed with alopecia almost 20 years ago - shot to fame as a presenter and model in the 1990s but ended up homeless for six months when work dried up in the years that followed and shocked staff in the menial job when she asked for employment.
Speaking on ITV's 'Lorraine', she said: "I was just going through a difficult time, I'd lost my hair, work wasn't really coming in, bills were going out. It's just one of those things, it's weird, now that I get to talk about it. It can happen to anybody.
"Magazines, they usually didn't pay us but they'd say 'You're on the tellybox, you'll be on 'Top of the Pops'. Promotional work. You didn't get paid for these things.
"I saved as much as I could and, I've got an amazing daughter who is 22 now, but when my hair fell out and work wasn't really coming in, they said 'Oh come on, you're Gail Porter, you're all right' and I had to say 'No, genuinely'."
The former 'Celebrity Big Brother' housemate has teamed up with Prince William on his mission to combat homelessness with his 'We Can End Homelessness' documentary and explained that it is quite strange to be talking about it all now because of how "embarrassed" she was at the time but is keen to raise awareness of the issue.
"I felt a bit like a hidden homeless person. My friends were helping me so I'd stay on a sofa or stay in a spare room, I was a bit too embarrassed to talk about it all. It kind of caught up with me. When I got asked to do this, I thought it was unusual. The postman was buzzing the buzzer, and I wasn't expecting a parcel. And he said 'No, you've got a letter...I think it's a royal letter."
"The postman was excited! And I thought...what a great thing to do!"
English (US) ·