![\"Martin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_press_association_money_259\/62f022bb6ece394d5d1bcc062b430f29.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nMartin Lewis has reflected on his childhood as a \u201cbroken, scared boy\u201d who \u201cbarely left the house\u201d as he picked up a Bafta special award for his work in the TV industry.<\/p>\n
The financial journalist and broadcaster, 54, was acknowledged for his dedication to helping the nation change the way it thinks about money, and had previously been hailed by Bafta as \u201cthe most trusted man on television\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Money Saving Expert gave an emotional speech after being presented with the prize by Richard Osman, during the award show at Royal Festival Hall on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Martin Lewis with his award (Ian West\/PA)<\/p>\n
(Ian West)<\/p>\n
The Manchester-born broadcaster opened his speech by joking that his Martin Lewis Money Show on ITV, which he has hosted since 2012, is \u201cbasically a powerpoint presentation with a Q&A after\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cTV doesn\u2019t have to be format-driven. People will embrace something actionable, something real, something that helps. They will even embrace complexity, if we make it worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growing visibly emotional, Lewis admitted he wrote the speech on Thursday, 42 years after his mother\u2019s sudden death days before his 12th birthday.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cFor six years, barring school, I barely left the house. Now I\u2019m picking up a Bafta.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor all those of you out there struggling with your own demons, know this: life can be transformed, it can get better.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you had told that broken, scared boy that I\u2019d proudly be a campaigning journalist, his jaw would have dropped. So I dedicate this to consumer journalism, where I found my fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis continued: \u201cIt\u2019s not seen as sexy, sadly, but in recent years, it\u2019s helped people navigate pandemic support, pushed governments to backtrack on energy hikes, legislate against scam ads \u2013 though far more is needed on that \u2013 and against aggressive, destructive council tax debt collection and far more.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also issued a plea to Rachel Reeves, criticising the \u201cmorally wrong\u201d freezing of the repayment threshold for plan 2 student loans, which is due next year, saying: \u201cChancellor, please.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cThat power to hold power to account with trust and impartiality is needed more than ever in our fractured world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis wrapped up the speech by thanking his viewers, who \u201cdon\u2019t just watch, but act and save a shedload\u201d and that his audience is \u201cwhat keeps me doing this\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also thanked his wife of almost 20 years, Lara Lewington, and their daughter Sapphire.<\/p>\n
Through his decades-long career as a financial expert, Lewis has become known as a consumer champion who provides tips on issues such as debt and consumer rights through his broadcasting work and his website.<\/p>\n
He was made an MBE in the Queen\u2019s Birthday Honours in 2014 and a CBE in the New Year Honours in 2022, for his services to consumer rights and charitable services.<\/p>\n
The Bafta special award is one of the academy\u2019s highest honours and previous recipients include historian and broadcaster David Olusoga, comedian Sir Lenny Henry, TV presenter Cilla Black and actor Idris Elba.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin Lewis has reflected on his childhood as a \u201cbroken, scared boy\u201d who \u201cbarely left the house\u201d as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,77,265538,1059,27920,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-951508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-financial-journalist","11":"tag-martin-lewis","12":"tag-richard-osman","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116553107966003753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951508","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=951508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}