Ross Kemp has admitted he is “always worried about money” despite his successful career in television. The 61-year-old actor, best known for playing Grant Mitchell in EastEnders, said he has a “slightly obsessive” attitude towards finances, which he attributes to his parents' post-war upbringing.
Speaking to The Times, Kemp revealed that he worked multiple jobs while attending drama school, including cleaning toilets and serving pizzas, to stay out of debt. He also recalled being laid off from Emmerdale in the late 1980s, after which he earned £10 a day as a labourer.
Despite his wealth, Kemp said he does not “feel wealthy” and described himself as a “workaholic”. He believes he may have been the highest-paid person on British television at one point, but still tries to “work non-stop”.
Kemp’s best investments, he said, have been in property. He kept his first home, a three-bedroom semi-detached house in Essex, when he bought his second, and now owns a four-bedroom house on the border of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, surrounded by National Trust land.
As for his worst investments, Kemp joked that they are the ones his financial advisors “never want to mention” during annual meetings. He quipped that any investment made 20 or 30 years ago “has to have gone up”, recalling when a Mars bar cost 4p.
