I had started working in television but it did not pay that much. I was 27, renting this little one-bed flat in Shepherd's Bush, West London, with a bathroom so small only someone of my size could actually get in it.

I have always liked clothes - throughout my life, my saving grace has been my own vanity.

Unless you completely understand the investment world, do not mess around with it. It is not something I would go anywhere near.

When I was 16 I got a school holiday job at Minton's pottery factory in Staffordshire, packing plates. For a month's work, I was paid £44. Everything I now know about the birds and the bees, I learnt there.

Often, there is a job - say, for a voiceover or an appearance - and you think: 'Blimey!' From the outside it would seem like you are being paid a lot for a short amount of your time. It would be inappropriate to share how much they pay, but in the industry we call it 'doing a bank raid'. Unfortunately, those jobs do not happen every week.

Run a home like you would a small business and treat it with the same seriousness.

There's no getting away from it: you have to clean.