Jodie Marsh has revealed she went from earning £30,000 on photoshoots to being ‘completely skint’ and unable to pay her mortgage.
The former glamour model, 45, found fame in the Noughties and whether it was her high profile slanging matches with other glamour models, her various reality TV stints, and who could forget those belts, there wasn’t a day that would go by when Jodie’s face wasn’t splashed about in the papers.
Now, however, she’s had a complete career overhaul, turning her back on fame to run an animal sanctuary in Great Dunmow, Essex – opening Fripps Farm Animal Sanctuary in 2020.
In the years between, Jodie admits she’s made some dubious decisions when it comes to money, and in an exclusive chat with MailOnline she opened up about her finances.
As a child, Jodie was a pupil at the £10,000-a-year private Brentwood School and raised by mum Kristina Marsh – who tragically died from cancer in 2020 – and dad John, who made their money from their scaffolding business.
‘We weren’t millionaires but we weren’t poor,’ Jodie explained. ‘My dad was homeless at 16 and he built up himself from scratch, he came from nothing.’
Jodie Marsh opened up about her financial highs and lows as she revealed she went from being paid £30,000 to pose for for one picture to being unable to pay my mortgage
Jodie continued: ‘So I definitely didn’t grow up being used to money. We definitely had nice things when we were kids but I wouldn’t say we were spoiled.
‘We certainly knew the value of money and we never expected to just be given everything.’
Jodie explained that she was often teased at her private school because she didn’t own any designer clothes.
‘I got bullied to hell and back for my outfits because it wasn’t designer. They said I was poor and I was scum. I got ripped to shreds for my cheap outfits.
‘So as kids, we never had designer clothes ever or shoes. I bought my first pair of Louboutins when I think I was 35!’
Jodie also worked for her money in childhood, washing pots in restaurants from the age of 14.
Two years passed and she ended up working in a nightclub earning £150 a night looking after VIP clients and supervising the guest list.
‘I felt bloody rich!’ she joked about the sudden bump up in wages.
Aged 17, Jodie decided to pursue a career in glamour modelling, and applied to a tabloid hoping they’d feature her.
‘They sent me a letter back rejecting me! Thank you, but no thanks,’ she revealed. ‘I was devastated because I’d been bullied at school. They’d all called me ugly for many years.
‘So in my head, I was like, I’ve got to be a model I’ve got to prove to my bullies that I’m not ugly.’
Now Jodie has had a complete career overhaul, turning her back on fame to run an animal sanctuary in Great Dunmow, Essex – opening Fripps Farm Animal Sanctuary in 2020
Yet the Daily Star gave Jodie a chance and she ended up becoming famous, with the paper who initially rejected her coming back and asking for her to feature.
‘So by then I was 23 and obviously, I’ve never gotten over the rejection and I negotiated my own deal with them… for one photograph, they paid me £30,000. The other girls were getting paid £50 a shoot.’
Yet later in life, Jodie started receiving help with her finances and revealed that she had someone step in to negotiate her fee for a high profile TV gig.
‘I didn’t see the contract and I got paid £70,000 for that job. 14 years later I found out that I’d actually been paid £150,000 but I just never saw the money.
‘This was before everything was digital. There’s probably not even a record of it.’
Jodie also reflected on the financial struggles she faced when she retreated from the spotlight.
‘I was so fed up, I was getting trolled and people were just being nasty to me all the time, it was just horrible. So I sort of stepped out of the limelight but then it came a point where I couldn’t afford to even pay my mortgage.
‘I couldn’t pay any bills. I was completely skint. I was really in a mess, so I started to read The Secret [a self-help book] and I started doing a gratitude book.
‘I remember writing in the Gratitude book going I I want a brand new Audi Q7 and I remember laughing as I wrote it, because I thought,that’s ever gonna happen – I was on my a** and skint.
‘But two years later, I was champion of American bodybuilding. I smashed it and I walked into the showroom, ordered the brand new latest Q7 special edition with every extra on it, top of the range and I paid cash outright for it.
‘I cried the whole way driving it home because I was like, I can’t believe this has happened.’
Jodie reflected on the financial struggles she faced when she retreated from the spotlight but revealed winning a bodybuilding competition gave her the money to buy a brand new car
One thing that kept Jodie in the public eye was her 20-year slanging match with Katie Price and the model offered some very simple advice to her twice-bankrupt frenemy
Jodie’s various career paths and highs and lows have been well documented over the years.
One thing that also kept her in the public eye was her notorious 20-year slanging match with Katie Price, then rival Page 3 girl, Jordan.
Now, with Katie declared bankrupt for the second time, Jodie revealed the very simple advice she would offer her famed frenemy.
‘Stop spending money!’ Jodie put simply. ‘She can still earn. Go out and graft and keep the money. Just stop spending, especially on plastic surgery.’
No one knows the key to saving more than Jodie, who is currently tasked with paying the monthly bill for Fripps Farm.
She revealed the monthly costs are a whopping £24,000, and as she notes that doesn’t include vet bills.
There are also surprise costs that they can’t always prepare for, with Jodie revealing they once spent £20,000 rescuing Maximus – a pony who had been left to die on the side of the road.
Thankfully, Jodie was able to rely on her fans stepping in to help.
‘Our followers were amazing,’ she explained. ‘They really stepped up to help fund that and donate towards his vet bills. We couldn’t have done it without them.
‘Maximus would be dead because nobody else was willing to help him.’
The key Jodie explained is asking people to donate only what they can afford.
She shared: ‘We have these days called sound for a pound, most people can afford that no matter how skint they are, they can afford one pound a month.
‘If there’s an animal in the hospital and it needs treatment and we need to pay the bill, we go on Instagram, tell them what’s happening and they all just give one pouns at a time.
‘If you’ve got 20,000 people giving one pound a month, that’s £20,000 month, and we actually have got that.’
As well as relying on donations, Jodie returned to her glamour model roots to help fund the farm.
She launched an OnlyFans account and has earned thousands selling X-rated photographs of herself.
No one knows the key to saving more than Jodie, who is currently tasked with paying the monthly bill for Fripps Farm, which is at least £24,000
As well as relying on donations, Jodie returned to her glamour model roots to help fund the farm. She launched an OnlyFans account and has earned thousands selling X-rated snaps
Jodie explained: ‘We needed to put perimeter fencing around the whole entire farm, and that cost £65,000. I funded that entire thing from my OnlyFans.
‘For the first year my OnlyFans also paid all my staff. I never took a penny for myself.
‘Now, I probably only make a couple of grand a month on it, because I’ve been really slack on it because I’m so busy with the animals.
‘But I’m back posting again so that should shoot up again now. Back when I was paying the staff wages I was earning around £10,000 a month.’
If you would like to donate to Fripps Farm Animal Rescue visit www.frippsfarm.co.uk
