I blew £1m in 18 months says Hear'say star Suzanne: Squandered on cars and clothes

As a singer in the reality TV band Hear’Say, Suzanne Shaw was catapulted from obscurity to millionaire status almost instantly.

But she has admitted that she enjoyed her new-found wealth a little too much, and squandered her earnings on cars and clothes in just 18 months.

Miss Shaw, 32 – perhaps now best-known for her appearances on ITV’s Dancing On Ice – lost £1million and was threatened with bankruptcy.

 She revealed at the weekend that she spent £20,000 on clothes in just three months, and even sold a brand new car after one day, having decided she didn’t like it.
It took Miss Shaw – who divorced TV presenter husband Jason King in 2012 – eight years to pay off her £200,000 debts having been ‘too proud’ to be declared bankrupt. But she is now back on the property ladder and determined to set a good example for her son Corey, nine.
Hear’Say were formed on the ITV show Popstars in 2000, and their debut album sold three million copies around the world.
Miss Shaw said: ‘I had just turned  19 and over the next 18 months all  five of us in the group made about £1million each. I just blew my money with no regard to tax, no regards of investing. I just thought, “This is going to last for ever”.
‘I had a credit card with around 40 grand on it, and at one point my accountant told me I’d bought £20,000 worth of clothes in the space of three months and none of it was even designer.’
Miss Shaw, who joined this year’s Dancing On Ice All Stars after winning the series in 2008, told the Telegraph: ‘I went through three cars in about six months and once I bought this brand new Suzuki Vitara straight from the showroom, drove it for a day, decided I didn’t like it and the following day drove it to a BMW garage and said, “Can you buy this off me, and I want a BMW please”.
‘I was totally naive and had no idea that by driving a brand new car out of a showroom I’d lost thousands of pounds already.’
When Hear’Say split up 18 months after forming due to disappointing sales of their second album, she found herself confronted with debts of £200,000.
She said: ‘I felt like a total failure. I remember my dad screaming at me, “Why did you not sit down and talk to us?”. At that point I had literally nothing to show for my efforts.’
Other ex-Hear’Say members would appear to have dealt better with their fortunes. Myleene Klass is a successful businesswoman worth around £12million, while Kym Marsh landed a long-standing role in Coronation Street.