LOTTE OF GOLD
How Charlotte Church blew £25m as she admits ‘I’m no longer a millionaire’ after ploughing fortune into hippy retreat
The singer said she would need to 'work for the rest of my life... because I have to' due to her big spends
SHE was the teen singing sensation who banked an impressive £25million performing at prestigious concert halls around the world.
But now Charlotte Church, 38, has revealed she is "not a millionaire anymore" and has downsized from her £1.5million mansion to a semi-detached home.
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The classical singer - who once performed for the Pope - made £1million profit from selling off six-bed property The Spinney, in March.
The home, which also included a "big mansion house" close to a forest that was used as a community school, was sold as part of a plan "massively downsize".
Speaking on the decision to sell up, she told Closer Magazine: "We had a school there for a bit and a studio.
"When it is used by the community, it makes sense, but when it is not used, it doesn’t... It was very fairy-tale-like and then it gets into this dark, twisted fairy tale."
The house sale followed Charlotte hitting several snags while transforming another pad, 15th century mansion Rhydoldog House, in Powys, mid-Wales - the 47-acre former home of Laura Ashley - into a hippie wellness retreat.
She admitted she had sunk "pretty much" her entire life savings into the eco-project property, which she bought in 2021 for £1.5million and previously said she faced going "broke" due to the renovation costs.
Rhydoldog House opened officially last year after years of backlash including stalled planning applications, battles with eco-warriors over how she intended to dispose of waste from the site and other building problems.
Now as Charlotte reveals her significant drop in fortune, we look into how she spent her millions.
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Convertible and jewel-encrusted bra
It was singing Andrew Lloyd Webber’s operatic hit Pie Jesu on This Morning aged 11 that propelled Charlotte to go on to sell more than 10 million records.
Charlotte was able to access her millions when she turned 18 - after raking in a fortune from her six years performing all over the world and in front of President Bill Clinton, Pope John Paul II, the late Queen and King Charles.
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In a 2004 BBC interview, when Charlotte was 18, she vowed not to get carried away by her massive fortune - which her mum said was around £7million.
But the singer also claimed to be eyeing up some lavish purchases including a Mini Cooper convertible.
Charlotte also told reporters that she longed to buy a £1million ruby-encrusted bra to mark her 18th birthday.
While it’s not known whether she purchased the bejewelled item, her parents kept her grounded with modest birthday gifts including a CD player, some clothes and jewellery.
£10K girls' holidays
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That same year, the singer enjoyed romantic trips to Dubai and the Maldives with then-boyfriend Kyle Johnson.
She also took a group of girlfriends away on a week’s holiday in Ibiza.
Hello! magazine reported she splashed more than £10,000 on the trip to Spain’s party capital where she and friends enjoyed nightlife into the early hours.
During the trip, Charlotte didn’t hold back - paying for a private villa for them all to stay in and a full-time personal chauffeur to take them around.
She said at the time: “I’m just here on a girly holiday, I’m having a really good time.”
I will have to work for the rest of my life, not because I want to but because I have to.
Charlotte Church
A source told The Sun Charlotte was “very generous” during the holiday and would “buy all of the drinks” whenever pals went out.
In the years that followed, she was snapped sipping Champagne and on several occasions appeared to fall asleep in bars.
Mansions and a yacht
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A year later in 2005, while dating former Welsh rugby star Gavin Henson, Charlotte bought a home in Cardiff for around £500,000, which she later sold for £900,000.
The couple then purchased a lavish manor sat on 20-acres of land in the Vale of Glamorgan - now reportedly worth £2.5million.
Charlotte and Gavin, who split up in 2010, had a bar at the bottom of their garden where they indulged in drinking sessions, according to the Daily Mail.
The tax man is looking at my accounts wondering where I'm hiding all my money.
Charlotte
They were dubbed the ‘Posh and Becks’ of rugby and at one point owned a £800,000 yacht, which was moored in Swansea Marina.
In 2013, Charlotte bought her ex a five-bedroom property so that he could live closer to their children Ruby and Dexter, Wales Online reported.
Funding the lifestyle
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After performing for presidents and royalty it seemed Charlotte hit a mid-career slump in 2014.
The Sunday Times Rich List reported that her wealth had dropped to £11m that year.
In the documentary Charlotte Church: In Her Own Voice, she explained her concerns about cash.
She said: “I will have to work for the rest of my life, not because I want to but because I have to.
“The tax man is looking at my accounts wondering where I'm hiding all my money."
However, during an interview with Stylist, Charlotte claimed it was her spending that meant she constantly needed to graft.
She said: “I haven’t got a lot of money. I've got enough to be comfortable if I was reasonable for the rest of my life.
“But I'm not reasonable, so I will have to find a way to sustain my lifestyle."
TV work, ads and books
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Charlotte's last album Back To Scratch came out in 2010. Since then she's diversified her revenue streams with TV appearances.
She starred in The Charlotte Church Show, which aired on Channel 4 from 2006 for two years, and guest-starred in TV shows including Hospital 24/7 and Under Milk Wood.
The singer also turned her hand to adverts including ones for Walkers crisps and Virgin Holidays.
I haven’t got a lot of money. I've got enough to be comfortable if I was reasonable for the rest of my life.
Charlotte
Charlotte also wrote two autobiographies, her latest Keep Smiling came out in 2007, and a number of opinion pieces for The Guardian.
Charlotte married musician Johnny Powell in 2017, and had a daughter, Frida, on August 15, 2020.
Earlier this year Charlotte stepped back into the spotlight on The Masked Singer as Mushroom, and came second.
Hippy commune
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In 2021, Charlotte bought the grand Rhydoldog House for £1.5million, and ploughed cash into turning the home into a nature-based health and wellbeing retreat.
The seven-bedroom mansion - which she renamed The Dreaming - has three storeys, a helicopter landing area and a 200-year-old barn located on its 47 acres.
Read more on the Irish Sun
She described the “inspiring wellness project” as "one of the biggest, riskiest and potentially most rewarding challenges" she's ever faced.
It finally opened last year and offers guests wellbeing activities including foraging, mythic storytelling, star-gazing, cold water immersion, den building and herbalism.
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