A Nigerian heiress living off a £1,500 monthly allowance from her grandfather got a harsh reality check while staying with a skint family of three on Rich Kids Go Skint.
Engineering student Mercedez, 24, who lives in a £2,000 a month penthouse flat in London, went to stay with expecting parents of one Liam and Caitlan in Doncaster on 5Star’s hit series.
Used to a life of luxury funded by her millionaire grandfather, who owns numerous car and engineering companies in Nigeria, the debutante splashed her money on designer handbags, purchasing two or three a month up to £6,000 and spending £100 a day on food takeaways.
Meanwhile, Liam and Caitlan, who were both unemployed, scraped by on £548 a month of benefits, selling their belongings at the pawnshop to make ends meet and relying on the help of a local food bank to feed their two-year-old daughter Esme-Rose, all the while expecting another baby.
Mercedez’s worldview was turned upside down when she discovered that Liam used to sleep rough as a 13-year-old and had to rummage through bins to feed himself.
The conversation occurred after Liam hardheartedly sold a bracelet of Esme’s for the family to get by for the month, and he told Mercedez that when he was 13 years old, he couldn’t get any money at the time, no money or job.
And he told Mercedez that there was a shop around the corner and that he had to sleep under it, for six and a half months, and he said that they were there, and he pointed to a niche full of waste, which used to be a walk bin, where he spent most of his time, for six and a half months, dining out of the bins.
He added that he sometimes used to, on a Friday night, sit outside clubs begging for money. Something that he wouldn’t ever want anybody to have to go through.
Mercedez said that she couldn’t even imagine what it would be like, wiping the tears from her face. However, resilient Liam said he’d learnt from the experience and said that he was the person he was because of that reason, and that he went to live with his nan, and that she got him through college, and he studied catering.
The soon to be father of two’s voice broke as he went on to say that he just felt like he wasn’t good enough and that he felt like he’d grown on his own two feet.
He said, crying that he couldn’t read much or write very well, and that he was very dyslexic, and that prevented him from getting lots of jobs, and that it stopped him from driving, and that it stopped him from working sometimes.
He added that he’d managed to pick himself up and basically that was why he was the person he was today, and that he was a good person, and that people could see that deep down.
But these shows are so scripted, even down to the tears and it’s all we see on TV is tears, otherwise, the actual content would be dull, and this is just poverty porn, and after the show, the heiress just goes back to achieving absolutely nothing for the wealth that she’s never created and the poor people stay poor.
And £1,500 a month doesn’t buy designer handbags and shoes and £100 a day takeaways, something doesn’t add up unless there’s been a typo.
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