Gail Porter breaks down in tears on Loose Women over money woes

The 45-year-old, from Edinburgh, was speaking on Loose Women the day after revealing she had to live on a park bench for two nights after running out of money.

The former model broke down in tears on the panel show as she said: “I was an idiot. I kept getting bills and instead of dealing with them, I would just put them under my pillow unopened.”

An emotional Porter, who became famous in the 1990s for her photos in men’s magazines such as FHM, as well as television presenting jobs, said work had dried up after she started losing her hair in 2005.

Gail, 45, revealed her money troubles started after she was sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

She said: “That was about six years ago and that was the start of it because you can’t pay your bills because a doctor is looking after you.

“I didn’t open the bills, I just put them away. I’d had a breakdown, I’d lost my mum… so I put them under a pillow.”

She said: “I ran away from everything and things got worse. They weren’t huge bills,

“I had to make my bed on a park bench, it was ages and ages ago, I couldn’t afford anything, I slept on a bench in Hampstead Heath.”

She continued: “It piles up really, really quickly, my problem was I ran away from everything and it gets really worse.

With her indebted status confirmed last week, the mother-of-one confirmed that she now lives off just £200 each month, after paying the rent on her flat in North West London

“My daughter Honey didn’t know at the time. She is 14 now though, so she knows. I kept everything bottled up,” she added.