“I have dark days.”
Journalist and ‘Money Saving Expert’ Martin Lewis has admitted he feels “horrendous” pressure giving financial advice to the wider public.
Lewis, who hosts a money show on ITV and has waded into the air-fryer debate, has proved invaluable to many with his financial tips and advice. However, he admitted to BBC Radio 4 that he does feel pressured with the burden and finds stress ‘very difficult to manage’.
“If somebody applies for this [benefit] and it stops another benefit, I wouldn’t sleep at night,” he told the station’s Media Show.
Lewis sold his MoneySavingExpert website for £87m, in 2012, and received a CBE, in 2022 for services to broadcasting and consumer rights. He does take a great deal of pride in being such a trusted fiscal source but confessed he had ‘dark days’. Martin Lewis said:
“One of the greatest difficulties is you think, ‘Have I got it right? Have I got it right?”
“People think I’m incredibly robust because of the way I talk and I come across. Actually, I’m quite a brittle person. I’m tired.”
Martin Lewis on ways to tackle stress
Martin Lewis says taking regular breaks, getting away from social media for a spell, breathing exercises and ‘huge amounts’ of physical exercise help whenever he feels stress closing in.
During the show, Lewis also opened up on another sort of pressure. He said many, on social media and in private, had been asking him to speak publicly about the war in Gaza. Lewis, who is Jewish, said calls for him to do so were “bordering anti-Semitic”.
“I have never been asked about political situations in China, or Saudi Arabia, or South America,” he explained. “I’m British. I’m a British Jew. My parents were born in Britain. All my grandparents were born in Britain. All my great grandparents were born in Britain.
“And yet people somehow felt they could demand that, as a British Jew, I should be talking on a conflict in the Middle East, when I never talk about international affairs.”
