Sandra Martin, a former Gogglebox star, has confessed that she survives off ‘celebrity loans’ that she does not repay.
The 61-year-old TV personality joined the reality show’s debut season in 2013, but left four years later.
Sandra first appeared on Gogglebox alongside friend Sandi Bogle, and when she departed the show in 2016, she was replaced by her daughter Chanchez Martin.
Sandra, 61, has detailed how she is still able to leverage on her success from the programme seven years later.
Sandra had ‘been on benefits for years’ before joining Gogglebox, but she quickly found herself attending red carpet events, receiving gifts, and being accosted by admirers on a daily basis.
She subsequently said that she ended up back on benefits four years after leaving the programme, but she now looks to be enjoying the rewards of life in the spotlight.
With Sandra not working at the moment, she isn’t allowed to be paid for certain jobs and is instead ‘paid expenses’.
‘I don’t work, so I can’t get paid. But they pay for my expenses, the hotels,’ she told The Sun.
‘Someone took me to Amsterdam and Ibiza – I get a lot of free trips, I’m just not getting paid.’
She went on to add how her finances had been bolstered and are now ‘very well’ because her agent had given her ‘crisis loans’ and ‘celebrity loans’.
When asked if she paid them back, she continued: ‘I get celebrity loans.
‘No, they don’t get paid back, I don’t give it back.’
The actress then said that she was now renting a private apartment in Hastings, which was ‘free as well’.
‘I get free money – everyone knows,’ she added.
Sandra has already discussed how her Gogglebox popularity helped support a new luxury lifestyle.
‘I got more than everybody else, because everybody else was working, but I was on benefits, and I was the best one that was making the show,’ she told the same publication.
‘I got the contract, and they paid my rent, council tax, TV licence, electricity, gas, all the bills you need.
‘That left me with about £500 a week to do what I wanted – hair, taxis, nails, takeaways. I was living a luxury lifestyle.’
Sandi went on to seek other job possibilities after her tenure on Gogglebox, including a stint on Celebrity Big Brother.
Sandra said earlier this year that she had started working as a cleaner at a funeral home in Hastings, Sussex, after migrating from Brixton, London, to the coast.
The grandma stated that she was first given the receptionist role but turned it down because she was afraid it would be ‘too emotional.’
Gogglebox airs Fridays at 9pm on Channel 4.
