RICKY Gervais and Jane Fallon “ignore their wealth” after once living above a brothel in London’s Kings Cross.
Best selling author Jane was asked what it’s like to be “super rich” when she chatted to the Loose Women panel today about her new book, Queen Bee.
One of the novel’s characters is a loaded housewife who lives in a north London mansion – just like Jane and Ricky – but Jane couldn’t be more different from Stella, who she says uses her wealth as a “prison”.
Jane, 59, said: “The book is about a very specific group of the super rich. Who are people who really take absolutely no joy in their money. There is nothing wrong with having money but I find it very odd when they join another tribe of people who tell them what sort of marble to put on their floor and what sort of designers they should be wearing … Where money is everything”.
Loose Women’s Kaye Adams then asked: “Do you wrestle with having money? Because people would class you as being in the super rich category, though it’s not where you started out”.
And Jane replied: “Yes it is kind of weird. I think apart from obviously I’m living in a beautiful house I kind of tend to ignore it by and large because it is a strange thing to think about.
“But as long as it is giving you pleasure and you make good use of it that is fine. But for some people I think that it almost becomes another prison that they put themselves in.”
Jane went on to recall her and Ricky’s rags to riches story, saying that she and Ricky struggled to make ends meet in the early days of their careers.
They resided in a flat in Kings Cross when it was notorious for its street crime, pimps, vice girls and drug dealers – years before millions of pounds were ploughed into regenerating the area.
And Jane mused: “Because we went through a good few years when we had absolutely no money, and I’ve talked about this before – the brothel we lived above in Kings Cross – I always knew I had a plan to build up a career and I think once you do that it does mean a lot more because you’ve worked for all of it.
“I had many Saturday jobs I worked in various shops … I was a chamber maid in various hotels.
“I loved that job! You were on your own and you were poking round in people’s stuff, it was great.”
Jane and Ricky have been an item since 1982 but previously told The Times they decided not to marry because “there’s no point in us having an actual ceremony before the eyes of God because there is no God”.
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They live in a £10.8million London mansion, which boasts eight bedrooms, a pool and a summer house.
Ricky – who was recently offered £5million for a third series of After Life – also owns a £2.75million riverside house in Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
He bought the pad in in 2016 and calls it his “little country retreat” on Twitter.