Giovanna Fletcher has long been a big name in her own right, but, at the end of last year, she won over the nation's hearts on I'm A Celebrity - winning the show and gaining thousands of new fans. From her time on the show, it's also been reported that the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast host was offered lots of big money deals. But this weekend, reports emerged that mum-of-three Giovanna claimed thousands under the government's furlough scheme.
The news sparked lots of backlash though, because the pair are estimated to be worth millions. One person tweeted, 'Giovanna Fletcher claiming money from the furlough scheme is madness. Why these millionaires get of with this astounds me. Their greed is unbelievable.' Meanwhile, another added, 'What could Giovanna Fletcher possibly need £30,000 of furlough money for.' And a third said, 'It’s not on! This was taxpayers money and they didn’t need to claim it……so selfish.'
(Some, though, did come to Giovanna's defence, saying it was unclear whether the money was for Giovanna or an employee, and that no specific rules have been broken: businesses had every right to seek government support at a tough time, regardless of whether or not those involved were famous.)
Now, however, Giovanna and Tom have issued an apology, saying it was a 'huge error of judgement' to use furlough - and that the money, which they say was reported inaccurately, was for an employee. Writing on Instagram, the pair said: 'Hi everyone, we’ve always had a very honest and open relationship with you all on here so we thought it was important to address questions that some of you have rightly asked us in the last 24 hours.
'This weekend there was an article in one of the Sunday papers about us using the government furlough scheme. While parts of the article were inaccurate (including all of the figures mentioned), it is true that we did follow financial advice to furlough someone we employ.'
The statement added that they had since paid the money back. 'Although it was a time of great uncertainty, we clearly should have thought more about the situation and funded it ourselves,' they wrote. 'It was a huge error of judgement and a mistake we wholeheartedly take responsibility for and we have paid the full amount back.'
While Tom is most famous for being a member of McFly, Giovanna is a presenter, podcast host - she has millions of listens on her show Happy Mum, Happy Baby - and she's also written numerous books.
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