Helen Flanagan looks dejected as she holds her head in her hands during train journey - after admitting she's lost her £3.5m fortune and struggles to afford a cab

Daily Mail​

01-05-2025

Helen Flanagan looked dejected while posing for her latest Instagram post on Wednesday - after admitting she's lost her £3.5million-a-year fortune and struggles to afford a cab.
The former Coronation Street actress, 34 - who shares three children with footballer ex Scott Sinclair - was seen with head in hands as she sat on a train.
Captioning the post, in which she wore a fluffy pink coat over a green top, accessorised with a pair squared glasses, she wrote: 'Treated myself to some Miu Miu glasses for my tired dry eyes.'
Helen's latest post comes after she admitted her financial circumstances were so dire that she sometimes struggled to afford basic taxi fares.
Another photo saw her sporting a green T-shirt and a watch with a silver and gold chain as she rested a hand on her face.
She also posted a cute snap of herself alongside daughter Delilah, six, one of her three children with Sinclair.
A short clip saw the TV personality cutting a stylish figure in a red and pink robe with a reddy-pink hat as she let her blonde tresses loose for a trip to Aintree races.
In another snap, Helen and boyfriend Robbie Talbot, 45, put on their best pouts while in a pub, as she wore a pink cardigan over a black-and-white checked blouse and he sported a grey quarter-zip sweater over a white t-shirt.
She was also spotted having a laugh with makeup artist Carla Lawson Jones in a photo which saw her don a knitted pink sweater and baby blue scrunchie.
And one fun picture saw some pals sharing an embrace at a party.
The April update comes after she shocked fans earlier this month by announcing that she has been forced to put her eight-bedroom £1m Lancashire 'forever home' up for sale as she can no longer afford its upkeep.
Speaking candidly on The Declutter Hub podcast this month, Helen explained: 'It actually makes me sad that I'm going to be leaving soon because I actually put so much effort into it.
'When we moved I put like a lot of my savings into doing the house up and making it look really beautiful.
'But it's a big house. It's an eight-bedroom house, which is obviously really hard to keep on top of.'
She said of the future move: 'We are selling the house now which will be nice to have a change. Because I was with Scott for so long I was used to moving house a lot (because he is a footballer) so it's normal for me.
'I could now never stay in one place for too long I don't think. I like a change, I love it.'
She added: 'It makes me sad that I am going to be leaving this house soon because I have put so much effort into it. I put loads of my savings into making it look really beautiful. It's eight bedrooms which is hard to keep on top of - it's a lot.
'When we move I will struggle to downsize - I don't want to not sounds down to earth. Bu it will feel weird. It will be more manageable for me.
'I don't know where I want to live next. I've always wanted to live in London but there is such a price difference there. But it would be amazing for work and I do want a change. It's been a heavy few years for me so it will be a lovely fresh change.'
She revealed that her 'lovely boyfriend' is from Liverpool and has two kids so 'that is a consideration too' for the move, adding: 'But the decision will come to me I'm sure.'
During the podcast chat she also reminisced on living in the house she is now selling and all the memories that have come along with it.
She said: 'The house I'm in at the moment I've been here for four years. That's a big deal as when I was with Scott we moved house so many times and I don't actually know how many houses I lived in - Swansea, London, Scotland, Cheshire, everywhere.
Helen started dating former Manchester City footballer Scott in 2009 while the winger was playing for Wigan Athletic in the north-west, but they are believed to have split in 2022
Adored by millions for her long-running role in Coronation Street, Helen (pictured, left, aged nine, and, right, in 2011) once appeared to have it all
'We were renting and then to move into this home it was so nice to have that family home and obviously it didn't go how I wanted it to go but it's still been nice to have the family home.
'He bought me the house that I'm in now as a surprise. It was very sweet. We moved back to the area that I'm from and it was so sweet. But Charlie was about three months old at this point and I was struggling post-natally so it was tough timing.'
Helen revealed in court earlier this year that she was 'really struggling financially' before being banned from driving for six months after being caught speeding twice in 16 days.
She begged not to lose her licence due to her being a 'full-time mother' and would be unable to afford taxis to get her kids to school.
Helen claimed her boyfriend Robbie was driving her £66,000 Audi Q7 when it was caught speeding.
However, she was charged with two counts of failing to give information relating to the identification of a driver.
Helen said: 'My job really is being a mum at home. Their dad works away. It's really difficult at the moment now for me to be earning money. I earn money on social media but it kind of varies what I earn.
'I think there might be a perception maybe that I would easily be able to afford a driver but that's quite far from the case. I've got enough money in my account to pay off my tax and my VAT and basically that's about it.'
In 2018 Scott got down on one knee and proposed to Helen with an extravagant diamond ring while the pair enjoyed a family holiday at Disneyland Paris.
But if she felt her engagement meant her dreams were all coming true, the opposite was perhaps true. The marriage never actually took place.
And the postponement of her celebrity wedding to Scott in 2020 was the first obvious crack in their previously high-rolling lifestyle.
They paid £840,000 in cash for their 'forever home' near Bolton, Greater Manchester in 2021 - and later spent tens of thousands more improving the house she is now being forced to sell.
Sadly, their relationship broke down about a year later, with the couple announcing their separation in June 2022.
Helen blamed her mental health problems, and Scott's inability to deal with them, for the break-up of their family, but she continued to work but sporadically as she juggled her role as a single mother with media work.
Her last big payday was two years ago when she was paid an estimated £300,000 to return to the I'm A Celebrity jungle, this time in South Africa, for just two weeks. She appeared on Celebrities Go Dating the following year.
But her profile is now much lower, her earning opportunities fewer - and she is now doing less prestigious work: Helen has been signed up by lingerie firm Ann Summers who pay her to post sponsored Instagram posts to her 1.1 million followers.
Her new boyfriend, former non-league footballer Robbie, is not believed to be wealthy.
The actress's company HJF Darling Ltd published accounts for the year to the end of August 2024 of £135,387, leaving after tax a balance of £75,615.
In Helen's case, she has been very candid: in January she told a court she had 'lost basically all my money'.
And indeed it's believed she has been earning less than £100,000 a year in recent years - barely 20 per cent of what she once commanded in fees.