Alison Hammond has shared how she was 'traumatised' by failing to make a dent in her spiralling debts before finding fame.
The bubbly Brummy, 47, admitted her finances were in a dire disarray as she had debts of £3,000 which she had been unable to shift on her 'normal job' wage.
Speaking on Jessie Ware's Table Manners podcast Alison recalled: "I was in Tunisia, repping, and everyone was reading the papers about Brian Dowling - he had won Big Brother.
"And they were saying 'you should go on Big Brother, you'd win it'.
She added:"And at the time, I had a debt of like £3,000 and at the time I was traumatised by it.'
"Every time I got paid I just couldn't make that debt go down, so I thought that'd be a good idea to win £70,000 going in a TV show."
But despite bagging a spot on the lucrative Channel 4 show, fame on Big Brother didn't immediately pay off as Alison missed out on the winner's cash and ended up with just £30 expenses per day after lasting just two weeks on the show.
However, despite her very short stint on the reality series, the show became a platform for Alison to turn her hand to presenting as she was catapulted into prime time TV working on This Morning.
After winning viewers hearts with her witty and down to earth interviewing she was soon handed bigger assignments and interviewing A-listers became her go-to memorandum.
Many of her celebrity interviews and comical scenes has since gone viral on both sides of the pond.
Like many reality stars she has been offered paid partnerships and cashed on as lending her face to brands such as Crown Bingo and DFS Furnishings.
But her step up to co-present This Morning alongside Dermott O'Leary put her earnings in a new league of their own.
As of 2022, the TV star is estimated to be worth between a whooping £1 to £4million.
In July this year Alison shocked viewers by admitting she hadn't noticed £10,000 had gone from her bank account.
Alison was explaining to This Morning guests Gyles Brandreth, 74, and Carol Vorderman, 61, about how she took her car for a service and was meant to be charged £1,000 for the work when discussing stories where people had been overcharged during a segment of the programme.
However, she added that the garage had overcharged her by £9,000 in error before revealing that she did not notice the money had been taken by mistake until she was alerted by the worker a month later.
The TV host recalled: "I got my car serviced. I paid for the service and didn't notice until they phoned me that they'd charged me £10,000. I hadn't checked my balance.
"They noticed a month later and called me to say they'd meant to charge £1,000, but they'd charged £10,000 instead. I didn't even notice. That was nice that they told me."
