04 March 2024 , 09:41
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When Martin Lewis isn't helping the nation save money, he's spending time with his famous wife and 'mini-me' daughter.
The Money Saving Expert, 51, is one of the most trusted faces on television and has helped thousands of Brits keep their costs down at home. But when he isn't busy taking on uncapped energy bills or student finance, he enjoys quality time with his family.
Martin has been happily married to television presenter Lara Lewington for 15 years and the couple share a young daughter, who knows a thing or two herself about being savvy. Here, we take a look at the star's life off-screen and surprising early career move...
Stand-up career
Before he became the nation's economic hero, Martin had a surprising career in comedy. Rewinding to his university days, Martin became friends with comedian Gary Delaney while he was General Secretary of the Students' Union at the London School of Economics.
Gary, who went on to appear on Mock the Week and Dave's One Night Stand, wrote jokes for Martin because he was too nervous to perform himself. Writing on his blog in May 2006, Martin explained: "We were always mates, so much so that when I decided to try my hand at doing stand-up the next year, Gary wrote for me, as frankly, he's one of the naturally funniest people I've met.
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"At uni he was always the funny one, yet I was much more comfortable with a microphone, hence why I did the comedy and he wrote. My comedy 'career' was great fun, but by no means my calling, though it did teach me a huge amount. Yet in the end, real talent will out, and Gary put his nerves behind him and has ended up a superb comic."
Famous wife
The couple tied the knot in 2009 and share a daughter (PA)
Lara is a successful TV presenter and tech journalist for the BBC (PA)Martin's wife is television presenter Danielle Lara Lewington, 44. The couple have been happily married since 2009 and share a daughter. In the early days of their relationship, Martin and Lara would hire a motorbike on holiday and sing songs in the sun - but after becoming parents, Lara banned Martin from getting on a motorbike again.
Having spent six years at Channel 5 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.
Lara currently co-presents BBC's Click and is a Women's magazine columnist. She has been slammed by trolls for being attracted to Martin for his money - but he's shut down these claims. "I know you think it's a joke, but actually it's offensive both to me and my wife - you're accusing her of being a gold digger," he responded to an offensive tweet in 2020. And indeed, Lara concentrates on her own successful career at the BBC.
Family life
Martin and Lara are parents to Sapphire Susan Lewis, who was born in 2012. After the birth of their first child, Martin wrote a special blog about his newborn daughter and said, "while she weighs a wee 6lb 60z, her weight in joy is immeasurable".
Martin confessed that Sapphire had him wrapped around her little finger. He told The Sunday Times in 2020: "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."
Martin has said that one of his "greatest joys is making her happy" and whatever goes on at work, he makes sure to finish at 6pm, so he can spend some time with his little girl before putting her to bed. And it seems the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as he's already nicknamed Sapphire 'Mini Money Saving Expert'.
He tweeted a couple of years ago: "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 :)."
The couple's little girl was born in 2012 and is called Sapphire Susan Lewis (Instagram)
Martin said one of his greatest joys in life is making his daughter happy (Samir Hussein/WireImage)Childhood tragedy
Martin, who is a patron for Grief Encounter, lost his mother Susan Lewis in a tragic road accident while she was horse riding, just three days before his 12th birthday. Opening up on Radio 5 Live in March 2018, he 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 developed crippling anxiety, leaving him unable to leave the house as he 'couldn't cope' with the thought of something else bad happening. He said on BBC Four's Desert Island Discs in 2020: "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."
Martin, who is Jewish, said he would pretend to be busy with religious events to avoid socialising with his peers. He added: "It was very difficult because when all my friends from school were going to parties and meeting girls and things like that, which I'd have liked to do, I couldn't cope with it. It was a complete lie, I was a little boy. I was a little boy struggling to deal with something that nobody should be dealing with at that age."
During a tear-jerking Loose Women interview in 2019, Martin discussed the moment his world was turned upside down. "My sister, father and I were incredibly wounded for such a long time," he said. "I struggle to remember anything other than the pain. I'm trying to remember the wonderful person I lost, not remember I lost a wonderful person."
Martin hopes that his daughter never has to go through the same pain. He told the Daily Star: "It was all very sudden. None of us expected it. It's still something I don't like talking about. It's too painful to talk about. It affects me now. It affects me deeply. It affects me in my day-to-day life."
He added: "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."