Martin Lewis' crushing childhood loss and famous wife's ban for daughter
Whenever you need financial advice, you might find yourself heading to MoneySavingExpert.com to see if founder Martin Lewis and his team have shared anything that might help.
The 51-year-old, who even has his own ITV series The Martin Lewis Money Show, has been helping us by fighting our corner for years, but when he was younger, tragedy struck and sadly there was no one to help him as "you didn't have counselling" back then.
Just three days before his 12th birthday, Martin, who is a patron for the children's charity Grief Encounter, lost his mother, Susan, in a tragic road accident while she was horse riding.
Opening up on Radio 5 Live in March 2018, Martin emotionally explained: "When I got home I was told… there had been an accident involving a lorry but no one told me how serious it was. I remember worrying that my mum wouldn't be there for my birthday.
"The next day my dad told me that she died that morning and that was the end of my childhood, that moment. I cried every day until I was 15 and then I stopped crying and became brittle."
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Martin Lewis is well known as the Money Saving Expert (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)As a result, Martin, who is Jewish, developed crippling anxiety, leaving him unable to leave the house as he 'couldn't cope' with the thought of something else bad happening.
He claimed he would pretend to be busy with religious events to avoid socialising with peers outside of school.
"My mum was there one day and she wasn't the next and that was it. This was 1984 and you didn't have counselling," he said on BBC Four's Desert Island Discs in June 2021.
"My childhood ended that day and I am still not over it."
The pain of the loss has scarred him deeply and it's still something he struggles with today, especially as a father he's concerned about his daughter going through something similar.
"It affects me now. It affects me deeply. It affects me in my day-to-day life. It's one of the building blocks of who I am," he told The Daily Star.
"I close my eyes and pray that my little girl never goes through the pain that I went through. I sit there and think, ‘'Just let me be around until she's 20'. That's really important to me."
The couple have been married since 2009 (Samir Hussein/WireImage)
Lara is also a familiar face on TV (Getty Images)Following the tragedy that ended his childhood, things improved for the TV presenter when he met his wife Lara Lewington - who is also a familiar face on our screens.
The couple have been happily married since 2009 and share a daughter together, named Sapphire Susan Lewis.
In the early days of their relationship, Martin and Lara would hire a motorbike on holiday and sing songs in the sun.
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But after becoming parents, Lara banned Martin from getting on a motorbike anymore.
Having spent six years at Channel Five as a weather presenter and showbiz correspondent, Lara featured in a weekly sketch on ITV1's The Impressionable Jon Culshaw.
She was a panellist on ITV1's Win, Lose or Draw and has made appearances on Newsnight, Big Brother's Big Mouth, The Weakest Link and BBC's Let's Dance for Sports Relief.
The tech journalist Lara currently co-presents BBC's Click, a popular weekly technology news show, with Spencer Kelly and is a Women's magazine columnist.
On social media, Martin has a sweet nickname for his wife, who he often refers to as Mrs MSE (Money Saving Expert).
Lara banned Martin from riding motorbikes after their daughter was born (PA)And he has a similar nickname for his daughter Sapphire, who he calls Mini MSE, suggesting she could one day follow in his footsteps.
Martin previously told his Twitter followers that she was already taking after him and coming up with helpful tips.
He tweeted: "Mini MSE (age 7) said to me smiling tonight, having got some fruit from the fridge 'Daddy these grapes are a day over their best-before date, but I know I can eat them still because they're not use buy, and they still look ok.' I'm very proud. What a chip off the old block :)."
Sapphire was born in 2012 and her doting dad penned a special blog post about his newborn child at the time.
"Her name is Sapphire Susan Lewis and while she weighs a wee 6lb 6oz, her weight in joy is immeasurable," he wrote.
"Last night was her first one at home and it was quite exhausting (I think she's operating in a US time zone for some reason), though worth every second."
In May 2020, Martin confessed that Sapphire had him wrapped around her little finger.
"When my daughter was born, I remember saying: 'I'll buy her everything she needs, but not everything she wants'. Unfortunately, I didn't factor in her special power. Those eyes," he told The Sunday Times.
"I'm helpless and usually resort to saying, 'Ask mummy' because mummy is stronger than me. We don't splurge on her, but one of my greatest joys is making her happy," he proudly said.
Whatever is going on, Martin also makes sure that he finishes his work day at 6pm so he can spend some time with his little girl before putting her to bed.
So sweet!
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