31 October 2023 , 19:15
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As the cost of living crisis continues to spiral with no end in sight, Martin Lewis has become a champion of the people, dishing out advice on how to make the most of your money.
The Money Saving Expert star was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2014 for services to consumer rights and to charitable services. This was upgraded to a CBE at the beginning of 2022.
He was voted the UK's most trusted voice on Brexit and has raised millions for charity, including £4million for the Coronavirus Poverty Emergency Fund.
But the 51-year-old financial journalist fought hard to work his way to the top. Raised in rural Cheshire, he studied government and law at the London School of Economics before doing a postgraduate in broadcast journalism at Cardiff University.
Martin recently had his OBE upgraded to a CBE (PA)His first media job was working as a producer for the BBC's business unit, but it was on digital start-up channel Simply Money that he debuted his Money Saving Expert persona.
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When the channel went bust in 2001, he was given a Money Saving Expert slot on Open House with Gloria Hunniford, and it is around that time that he is said to have started sending a regular email to friends titled, Martin's Money Tips. According to BBC Radio 4's Profiles segment, his friends started passing it on to their friends, and as demand grew, he decided to set up his own platform.
In 2003 he launched his hugely successful website, MoneySavingExpert.com, for just £100 with only himself as staff. In 2012 he sold it to the Money Supermarket Group for £87million, £10million of which he set aside for charity.
He remained as editor-in-chief and later as executive chair, and according to The Sunday Times rich list, he now has a net worth of a staggering £123million.
And his achievements are astonishing given the terrible tragedy that befell his Martin and his family when he was just 11 years old. Of the earth-shattering event, he told Radio 4: "Three days before my 12th birthday I went to Sunday school - or Jewish Sunday school as it was - someone strange picked me up and when I got home I was told mum had been horse-riding with my sister and there had been an accident involving a lorry.
The couple tied the knot in 2009 (Getty Images)"The next day my dad told me she had died the next morning - and that was the end of my childhood. I cried every day until I was 15." The heartbreak drove Martin into seclusion for most of his teenage years, and good friend Kerry Perkins - who he met at uni - said he would never be the same again.
"But I think he would be the first to admit that it was the making of him in many ways because he has that drive from losing his mum and wanting so much to prove that he could do everything for her," she said . "I know she's always with him even though she isn't actually present in his life any more."
For years, a terrified Martin was riddled with fear and too scared to go out in case tragedy struck again. Martin told Radio 4's show Desert Island Discs: "I never went out until I was 18. I couldn't leave the house because of the thought something else could happen."
But university changed everything for him, with classmates recalling how he 'loved to party' and oozed confidence. His flatmate Elliot added: "Martin and I are very different. Martin used to have parties and I wanted to be quiet in my room and often I would be dragged into the parties - in my dressing gown sometimes - but Martin was very gregarious. People always wanted to be around him."