Like so many of life’s disasters, it happened slowly, then all at once. We lost our business during Covid. It was the business I had left my high-flying TV job for as the host of ITV’s multi-award-winning daytime show Loose Women for, and my husband and I had used our own money to invest in.

The closing down of the business took a while and ate greedily into our pot, which reduced at an alarming rate with nothing to refill it. Then a business friend offered a lifeline with an offer to come in as joint partners on a new venture they were starting, which gave us much-needed hope and the promise of a much-needed income.

We worked on the proposal, and even turned down another offer because we were told it was too similar to the project we would be undertaking, and there was a conflict of interest. Our money was now going down fast and our nerves were stretched, but we held tight – it was going to be OK.

Then, at the 11th hour, the offer to partner with them in their new business was withdrawn. I was told: “Your star has faded, Andrea. You are no longer who you used to be. Go and get a job on TV again, and when you are more famous, let’s have another chat and see what we can do.”

It was the end of the line. I was washed up, past it, broke, with it seemed no hope of ever finding work again.

How did we cope? Differently. My husband became focused and driven, batting away any kind of emotion about our circumstances, focusing purely on possible solutions. I also became practical and creative, thinking about what my skills were, and how I could offer them.

But I keenly felt the loss of status and identity that came with being a famous person off the telly who once had cars sent to collect her and was paid handsomely for her work, to someone who couldn’t get a response when applying for a job in a coffee shop. All of the emotions came to the surface; shame, humiliation and embarrassment.

We found little pockets of happiness during this time, doing things that didn’t cost much, if anything at all. One Sunday, we set off into the cold, holding a small flask of coffee we had made at home to share. We walked for a........

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