SHE’S a millionaire with a £12million Mayfair home and £10m jewellery collection and he’s an ex-con who spent years homeless after leaving home at 16.
But when divorcee Amanda Cronin met Martin Read, they struck up an unlikely friendship which resulted in the new Channel 4 documentary The Millionairess and Me.
The programme, which airs on Monday, follows filmmaker Martin – who grew up on a London council estate – attempting to understand the luxurious lifestyle of the super-rich, with trips to Monaco, charity galas and shopping trips to look at £23,000 earrings.
Former model Amanda has ten staff running her plush Belgravia home and reveals she has bought a mansion round the corner for £3million, which she’s renovating in the hope of selling for £11million.
She takes a wide-eyed Martin on a shopping trip in her £200,000 Bentley to buy fittings and fixtures, including a £26,000 bath, and invites him to try out an £88,000 bed.
While Martin marvels at the cost of gold taps at £7,000 each, it’s all in a day’s work for the influencer – who landed a multi-million pound settlement when she divorced energy mogul Mark Daeche in 2019.
Amanda – who has 60k followers on Instagram – also reveals a huge collection of Gucci handbags, admitting that a lot of her stuff is free and that “it’s like Christmas every day.”
But she says she gets a lot of abuse online from people who accuse her of being a prostitute.
“You’re not allowed to be rich, successful, pretty and fun,” she says. “They say ‘there must be something wrong with you. You must be a hooker.’”
After introducing him to the high life, Amanda immerses herself in Martin’s world, working in a charity shop in Cardiff – parking her Bentley right outside – and feeding the homeless in a church-funded canteen.
Bonding over designer handbag
Martin first met Amanda after she commissioned a £2,000 hand-painted bag, with a picture of her dog, from his pal, Gina.
But when Gina delivered it, it appeared she had expected it to be free – in return for plugging it on her Instagram feed.
Their first phone call lasted three hours and, despite his misgivings about the mega-wealthy, he says he “fell in love” with her character .
“Amanda invited me for dinner, so I went to dinner at her house and we started hanging out and we realised we had a lot in common,” he tells The Celeb Report.
“She’s got a great sense of humour, she’s a maverick and I love mavericks.”
Amanda, who says she only had time to talk to Martin for three hours because she was sick with Covid, adds: “We instantly found there was lots to talk about, which is really weird, so I invited him to London and made him a roast dinner on the hottest day of the year.
“We found we just enjoy each other’s company. We can laugh and joke and we find each other’s stories interesting.”
Landed Monaco millionaire at 21
Growing up in a two-bedroom house, with four brothers, Martin was keen to leave home as soon as possible and was squatting and sofa-surfing at 16.
After landing a job cleaning tunnels on the underground, he was diagnosed with ADHD and chronic insomnia, he was put on medication which had an “adverse effect”.
“I fell apart and ended up homeless for a couple of years,” he says. “Then I decided to go to university to get a degree and try to be a filmmaker and I was homeless for the first year of uni.”
Even after making an award-winning documentary on homelessness for the BBC, he found himself back on the street and, at 23, he ended up in a Dubai jail after travelling with some pals who had cloned credit cards.
It’s a far cry from the life of mum-of-one Amanda, who was scouted as a model in her native Southampton and travelled the world – becoming a regular visitor in Monaco, which would later become her home.
“The first time I went to Monaco, on EasyJet for about £80, I came back with a boyfriend who owned a 50ft yacht,” she tells The Celeb Report. “We were together for three years.”
Amanda was living in Monaco when her marriage to former First Utility boss broke down, three years ago, leaving her devastated – despite her huge paycheck.
When Martin began filming the documentary, shortly after the split, she was determined to move forward, setting herself up as an independent businesswoman with a new skincare business and a property portfolio.
“I was locked out of all my properties and walls built, and we were together for 12 years,” she says. “Now I have my own properties and it’s fine.”
Fish out of water
Amanda’s skincare launch took her back to Monaco with Martin in tow – and he admits he felt like a fish out of water in the fancy restaurants and the yacht club.
In one scene, Amanda gets a lift from a pal in a £2.4million Bugatti – while Martin is left to walk.
“I struggled with the dress code and keeping up with the Monaco society crowd,” he admits.
“I was also a little bit lost in a French restaurant when I didn’t know what to order.
“Amanda noticed it and made me feel at home but it was a bit uncomfortable. I just wasn’t used to that wealth but after a day or two, I got sucked in and I wanted to move to Monaco.
“It was bonkers and I know I shouldn’t love it, but I did.”
Dior sunglasses and £360 Gucci voucher in charity shop
In contrast, Amanda seemed to have a ball when she was seconded to Cardiff to work in a Red Cross charity shop with Martin’s pal Andrew.
She decides to dress the window, donating Dior sunglasses, a pink Isabella Frankie belt and a Gucci gift voucher worth £360 to boost profits.
Her stint in a food kitchen for the homeless was also a triumph, as she chatted to down and outs and even struck up a friendship with a man who used to work in a Mayfair bank with her financial advisor.
“I felt very honoured to have that organised for me and I was keen to experience the canteen, because I’m a very caring person,” she says.
“I worked in a food bank during the pandemic, but this was different because this was actually a homeless shelter.
“Seeing another side of life is very humbling and I love feeding people so it was a great opportunity to care and feed and nurture and just loved meeting the characters there.”
No fairytale ending
Despite admitting to a £10million collection of bling and saying she loves driving her luxurious Bentley – with pink leather interiors – because it “hauls ass”, Amanda says she knows what it’s like to be “desperate” and “at the brink of disaster” over her divorce.
But she is keen to acknowledge that cash-strapped Britons have bigger problems.
“My whole world fell apart, overnight, in public, so it’s not about being tough, it’s just that’s not a problem,” she says. “When you can’t pay your rent, you can’t pay your bills, that’s a problem.
“People might think I’m in a gilded cage, I am. But I know what it’s like not to be in a gilded cage. And I know what it’s like to be in a gilded cage with the door locked, which is not ideal either.”
Three years on from her marriage split, Amanda has dated but says she doesn’t necessarily need a man in her life.
“I’m so over people trying to hook me up and my daughter feels the same,” she says.
“We’re powerful, intelligent, successful women on a trajectory and of course we need to have love and we need to have lovers, and we have that, but at the end of the day it’s not us being defined by men anymore and walking in the shadows of men.”
Sadly for viewers hoping for a fairytale ending for this endearing odd couple, there is no romance on the horizon – and Martin jokes that he’d need £300million in the bank before she’d look at him.
But there is a happy ever after of a different sort, as they have vowed to be friends for life.
“There is no romantic chemistry, it’s purely platonic,” says Amanda. “But we trust each other and love talking to each other.”
“We’re just like two naughty kids having fun,” says Martin “It’s platonic and I think it’s best like that.
“We have lots of fun and we’re going to continue to have fun. Why would we want to mess it up?”
The Millionairess and Me airs on Channel 4 and 9pm on Monday
