{"id":237444,"date":"2025-07-04T12:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T12:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/237444\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T12:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T12:59:08","slug":"coronation-street-star-went-from-having-everything-to-living-below-breadline-tv-radio-showbiz-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/237444\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronation Street star went from \u2018having everything\u2019 to living \u2018below breadline’ | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most iconic Coronation Street<\/a> stars ended up relying on benefits and living \u201cbelow the breadline\u201d after retiring from the ITV<\/a> soap. Bruce Jones, best known for playing Les Battersby on the cobbles, blew his \u00a31million fortune after starring in Corrie<\/a> for a decade between 1997 and 2007.<\/p>\n

The actor has been on benefits twice in his life \u2013 the first time in the mid-1980s after a factory accident forced him to stop working. He explained to The Sun: \u201cI still wanted to be the breadwinner and found being out of work hard to bear. It was depressing; as the man of the house I felt I should be going out and bringing home the wages.”<\/p>\n

By 2015 he was back on benefits after being axed from Coronation Street<\/a>, admitting it was a \u201chell of a comedown\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was mobbed by people coming up to ask for my autograph. I had a good job, nice car, houses, the best holidays. It all went.\u201d He had his \u00a3500,000 Cheshire home and bungalow in North Wales repossessed and was left living in a caravan after spending what was left of his \u00a31million earnings.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI knew that I was instantly recognisable and the Job Centre wasn\u2019t really the place I wanted to be.\u201d He received around \u00a3200 after being on Universal Credit<\/a> for \u201cabout six weeks\u201d, which was a \u201csoul-destroying\u201d experience he never wants to repeat.<\/p>\n

Now Bruce is living off three private pensions and claims a state pension<\/a>, and is back living in his own house. He continues to act, having appeared in miniseries The Full Monty in 2023 and short film The Exit Guide in 2024.<\/p>\n

The actor has also appeared on several documentaries over the years, including Famous, Rich and Homeless and Celebs on Benefits: Fame to Claim on Channel 5<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most iconic Coronation Street stars ended up relying on benefits and living \u201cbelow the breadline\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[92581,92583,92582,92588,1458,236,92586,92587,77,208,92584,92585,16,15,2377],"class_list":{"0":"post-237444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bruce-jones","9":"tag-bruce-jones-benefits","10":"tag-bruce-jones-corrie","11":"tag-celebs-on-benefits","12":"tag-channel-5","13":"tag-coronation-street","14":"tag-coronation-street-les","15":"tag-coronation-street-star-on-benefits","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-itv","18":"tag-les-battersby","19":"tag-les-corrie","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-universal-credit"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}