Gail Porter opens up about being homeless: ‘Don’t be proud – keep asking for help’
Gail Porter was someone you would see regularly on big TV shows such as Top Of The Pops and Live & Kicking in the 1990s and 2000s, as well as on the cover of lads mags – famously the FHM cover that saw her naked image projected, without her prior knowledge, on to the Houses of Parliament.
But when she was diagnosed with alopecia in the mid-2000s, after already suffering with mental health problems, her TV work dried up.
“My hair fell out, nobody wanted to touch me with a barge pole,” she tells Sky News. “I didn’t want to wear a wig because I find them uncomfortable. And then suddenly the only jobs you’re getting offered are to go on and talk about being bald.”
Gail Porter appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2015
After bouts of depression, self-harm, anorexia and a breakdown – and at one point being sectioned – the star found herself with nowhere to go about eight years ago. She had no work, and an unexpected tax bill “completely scuppered me. I was done”.
Porter, 52, says she spent time moving between friends’ spare bedrooms and sofas. “And there were a couple of nights on Hampstead Heath, just sitting, thinking: ‘I’ve got no idea where to go’. It was a very long six months, but I managed to get back on my feet again.”
Porter entered the Celebrity Big Brother house in August 2015, appearing alongside stars including Janice Dickinson, Bobby Davro and Natasha Hamilton, and was able to rent the flat in London she is living in today. “I’m happy to have a roof over my head,” she says.
In recent years, the star has campaigned to raise awareness of those facing homelessness and is now working with the Good Things Foundation, a digital charity, and Virgin Media O2 to highlight The National Databank – described as similar to a foodbank, but for free mobile data, texts, and calls.
The star worked with the Single Homeless Project before Christmas
‘I never thought in a million years it would get this bad’
The charity says demand for the National Databank is increasing, with its website already receiving almost double the number of visits in 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, as the cost of living crisis continues.
Virgin Media O2 surveyed 2,000 adults in the UK, and say more than a third (35%) believe they are only one pay slip away from finding themselves in extremely difficult financial hardship.
“That is such a frightening statistic,” says Porter. “I never thought in a million years it would get to this bad with me. And then it was just spiralling out of control.
“I was trying to apply for jobs, but without my phone or a laptop… I was walking round with a black bin liner with my clothes. ‘Excuse me! You got any jobs going in the bookshop? Or you got any jobs going in the library?’ I just want to work anywhere, I don’t care. It was very difficult for me, traipsing around everywhere with a bag, just trying to get myself back on my feet.”
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Porter found herself struggling to access some of the everyday services most take for granted. “I did have a little bit of data on my phone… then when that ran out, suddenly I thought, my gosh, can someone help me get somewhere to stay? Can I go to the doctor’s to talk to somebody about how I’m feeling mentally? Can I contact a friend?”
Because of her fame, the assumption by those around her was that she would be okay.
“All those magazines I did, I never got a penny… not everything is as lucrative as it seems.”
Porter says she appeared on shows for minimum pay and even without payment. “So you’d see me doing lots and lots of things… that kind of went on for quite a long time. You can’t really work for free all the time.”
Moving to stand-up comedy
Life is great now, she says, and there’s a new challenge on the cards – Porter, who is Scottish, is due to launch her stand-up comedy career at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival later this year.
“I have good days and bad days,” she says when I ask if she’s feeling nervous. “Sometimes I think, this is going to be great, what could possibly go wrong? And then sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with the sweats. What was I thinking of? And it’s my hometown so my friends have said they’ll come.”
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Porter says she doesn’t want to give too much away, but the show will draw on her personal experiences of mental health struggles and her homelessness.
“Now that I’m on my feet again, I can laugh about certain things,” she says. “So, lots of little stories about losing my hair, being sectioned, all sorts of little funny things. Hopefully people will enjoy it.”
Before she goes, Porter offers advice to anyone who is going through similar experiences to hers – and urges people in need to find their local databank.
“You’re not on your own,” she says. “Don’t be proud. You just have to swallow that and say, you know what? It’s happened. The best thing I can do is go onwards and upwards – and keep asking for help.”
Universal Music and TikTok have ended a dispute over royalties after the label pulled millions of songs from the social media platform.
The new licensing agreement means songs by some of the biggest artists in the world, including Drake, Adele and Billie Eilish will return to the site for use within the next two weeks.
TikTok, a short video app, is a valuable marketing and promotional tool for music stars. But in January, Universal claimed it paid artists and songwriters “a fraction” of the rate offered by similar social media platforms, and announced it was pulling its catalogue.
Billie Eilish is also among Universal’s artists. Pic: Reuters
Universal is the biggest music label in the world and also looks after Taylor Swift – who allowed a selection of her songs to return to TikTok as she promoted her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, in April. Swift owns the copyrights to her recordings through her 2018 deal with Universal and can control where her songs are available, according to the Financial Times.
The companies now say they have come to “a new multi-dimensional” licensing agreement that will deliver “significant industry-leading benefits” for Universal’s artists and labels.
In a joint statement, TikTok said it would continue to invest resources into “building artist-centric tools” and work on strengthening online safety protections for artists and their fans.
The AI issue
Drake, another Universal artist, has previously had his voice cloned for AI tracks. Pic: AP
The agreement means all videos that had been muted will be unmuted. It comes just over three months since Universal posted an open letter criticising TikTok, calling for higher payments for artists and songwriters, protection from the “harmful effects” of AI, and online safety.
In their joint statement, the companies now say they will work together to ensure AI development across the industry “will protect human artistry and the economics that flow to those artists and songwriters”.
They will also work to remove unauthorised AI-generated music from the platform, as well as on tools to improve artist and songwriter attribution, the statement says.
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Universal chairman and chief executive Sir Lucian Grainge said the “new chapter” focuses “on the value of music, the primacy of human artistry and the welfare of the creative community”, while TikTok chief executive Shou Chew added: “Music is an integral part of the TikTok ecosystem, and we are pleased to have found a path forward with Universal Music Group.”
Concerns about AI have grown in the creative community. In April last year, a song featuring the cloned voices of Drake and The Weeknd was removed from streaming sites after going viral.
On Tuesday, British singer-songwriter and producer FKA Twigs told a US Senate hearing how she had created her own digital clone – but condemned unauthorised use of her voice and image.
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On Wednesday, a poll by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Music found that 83% of UK adults agree that a music artist’s creative “personality” should be protected in law against AI copies and 77% believe it amounts to theft when generated music fails to acknowledge the creator of the original.
In April, more than 200 artists signed an open letter objecting to the “predatory” use of AI to “steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses”.
Wales is to get its own version of talent show The Voice, it has been announced.
The series named Y Llais (Welsh for The Voice) will be presented by Radio 1 DJ Sian Eleri.
The Boom Cymru-produced show will make its debut on S4C next year.
Opera star Sir Bryn Terfel has been announced as one of the four coaches.
Sir Bryn Terfel. Pic: AP
The Grammy award-winning artist performed at the King‘s coronation last May.
The Welsh-language version becomes the 75th international adaptation of The Voice format.
The series sees contestants take part in “blind auditions” as they hope to impress the coaches and prompt them to turn their chairs to proceed to the next round.
Sian Eleri. Pic: S4C
Sir Tom Jones. Pic: ITV/Rachel Joseph/Shutterstock
The ITV series The Voice UK also features a Welshman as part of its coaching line-up, with Sir Tom Jones joining will.i.am, LeAnn Rimes and McFly‘s Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones.
The winner of the Welsh version will secure a 12-month mentoring scheme as well as further opportunities to perform on S4C programming.
“It’s great that the Land of Song is getting its own special version of the The Voice series,” Sir Bryn Terfel said.
Sian Eleri said she was “delighted to be presenting one of the biggest shows in the world”.
“For it to be happening on home soil with S4C is next level. Bring on those rotating chairs,” she added.
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“As a nation we have produced some of the most successful singers in the world, and with this format we’re looking forward to discovering the next big voice from Wales,” added S4C’s interim chief content officer Geraint Evans.
The deadline to apply is 21 June, with auditions set to take place in North Wales on 12 July and in South Wales on 15 July.
Actor Martin Freeman has revealed he has turned his back on vegetarianism, 38 years after he stopped eating meat.
The 52-year-old Sherlock and The Office actor said he went vegetarian as a teenager in January 1986 because he “was never comfortable with the idea of eating animals”.
But he said he had gone back to eating meat because their replacements can be “very, very processed”.
“I’m trying to eat less processed food,” he said on the Dish podcast with Nick Grimshaw and professional chef Angela Hartnett.
The podcast sees guests sit down for a meal with the hosts – and Hartnett’s bolognese was on the menu for the latest episode.
Freeman said it could be the first “proper” bolognese he had ever had, although he said his mum was a “pretty good cook”.
Going back to an omnivore diet was a “really new” thing in the last couple of months, he said.
He said he “always had veggie replacements” which he described as “lovely”.
“It’s a funny one, because I like meat replacement things, but my reservation about them is that they can be very, very processed.”
Alarm bells have been sounded about ultra-processed foods, with studies warning they may increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.
However, a recent study found plant-based meat and dairy alternatives have lower levels of saturated fat and higher fibre than their animal-derived counterparts.
The researchers found that while plant-based alternatives “technically” fall under the category of ultra-processed foods (UPFs), the nutritional value of some products aligns with dietary recommendations.
However, they warned nutritional value can vary considerably between products.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
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Host Nick Grimshaw also revealed how his flirtation with plant-based eating ended.
He said he ate a mostly vegan diet while living with a vegan friend – but had to “break my veganism” when he spotted a scotch egg at a party.
Freeman also talked about enjoying scotch eggs since going back to eating meat, calling those and pork pies “food of the gods”.
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