Martin Lewis clarifies comments after saying it’s ‘horrendous’ to be UK’s trusted ‘money saving expert’

Martin Lewis has clarified his comments in which he said it is often “horrendous” being the UK’s most “trusted” money saving expert.

The financial journalist, 51, has become a leading source for consumer affairs in the country after scoring his own segment on daytime series This Morning in 1993.

After selling the Money Saving Expert website for £87m in 2012, Lewis started hosting The Martin Lewis Money Show and every episode of the series is watched by millions of viewers who tune in to seek advice on the best ways to cut costs.

However, Lewis has said he finds the stress of being so trusted by the general public “very difficult”, telling BBC Radio 4’s The Media Show: “I have my dark days.”

On Wednesday (13 December), he said he has “professional paranoia”, which leads him to wonder: “Have I got it right?” He called this “one of the greatest difficulties” of the job.

“I do find the stress very difficult to manage, and I would not set myself up as an example of how to manage and cope with huge levels of stress, because I’m really poor at it,” he said. “I tend to find most of the time I can deal with it, and then I have periods where I find it very, very difficult to deal with, and I struggle with some functionality to be able to do it.”

Lewis said the audiences’ belief that he is “incredibly robust because of the way I talk and I come across” is actually a misconception, adding: “Actually, I’m quite a brittle person. I’m tired.”

After outlets reported Lewis’s comments, he clarified what he meant to his fans on social media.

Lewis wrote: “It reads like I was complaining, not that I was asked from memory something akin to, ‘You must be very stressed with the responsibilities you have, do you have coping strategies that’d help others?’ To which I replied a version of... I’m terrible dealing with stress, and don’t handle it well, so wouldn’t want to be set up as an example of what to do!

Earlier this month, The Martin Lewis Money Show viewers criticised the show’s decision to axe Lewis’s co-host Angellica Bell.

Those tuning into the latest series of the series were surprised to find that Bell, who had been on the show since 2017, was nowhere to be seen.

Shortly after, it was reported that Bell was “sacked with no warning” following her appearance on Channel 5’s Shop Smart, Save Money, which was formerly known as The Gadget Show.

ITV told The Independent: “Angellica is not working on The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, however, the relationship with her remains amicable and we are working with her on other forthcoming programmes.”