Paddy McGuinness has revealed he once dragged a dirty mattress from a back street to his family home and slept on it for six years as a teen.
The Top Gear host, who’s currently writing his autobiography, recalled: “I remember as a kid going out in to the back street, finding a mattress on the floor and thinking, ‘That’s a decent mattress.’
“I dragged it home to my house and put it on my bed and it stayed there for six years. It was totally normal. Now, I wouldn’t even stand on it. If I stood on it, I’d burn my shoes after.”
Paddy, who is now worth around £8million after his success with Phoenix Nights, Take Me Out and Top Gear, added the bed had probably been peed on by a pooch.
He said: “If you’ve thrown out a mattress, you can imagine what condition it is when you’re throwing it out – probably dogs had been on it. I’m like, ‘Fantastic.’
Paddy, 47, who was born in Farnworth, near Bolton, Lancs, said his childhood was all about hand-me-downs.
(Image: Instagram)
“I was brought up where everything was second hand and that were normal. If someone put something in the back street that they didn’t use anymore, an old wardrobe, there’ll be someone come along and go, ‘Oh that’s alright that, I’ll have that.’ That kind of thing is totally normal.”
Now, Paddy lives in a £2.1million Cheshire mansion with his wife of 10 years, Real Housewives of Cheshire star Christine and their three children, six-year-old twins Leo and Penelope, and three-year-old Felicity.
Last month, Paddy despaired that Penelope asked where the swimming pool was when they went to view their current house.
“When we were getting this house done, we used to drive up and let them look from outside. ‘The first thing my daughter says is, ‘Where’s the swimming pool?’ I was like, ‘Is that a normal question to ask someone?’
He added: “This is so far removed from my childhood, and she said it’s just normal, totally normal, ‘Where’s the housekeeper living, Daddy? It’s mad, but that’s just how it is, I think it’s difficult when you’re brought up with like double nothing.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk