Star of Strictly Paul Merson will not be keeping his fee after competing on the hit BBC dance show.
The former footballer signed up for Strictly’s 20th anniversary series this year and was paired with pro dancer Karen Hauer. The couple made it to week five last weekend but sadly found themselves in the bottom two after not receiving enough public votes to be saved.
Paul and Karen landed in the bottom two alongside JB Gill and Amy Dowden, who were saved by the panel of judges.
Strictly star Paul Merson will give his earnings to his wife
Instead of pocketing his Strictly fee, Paul will hand them over to his wife, Kate. After suffering from alcohol and gambling addictions, Paul now gives his earnings to his wife to avoid relapsing.
Paul, who is now a football pundit for Sky Sports, has been open about his past struggles. As a result of appearing on Strictly, Paul hopes to raise awareness.
“Being an addict and a recovering alcoholic myself… to show people watching this show who have got addictions, that you can go out and do something like this… is so important,” he told TalkSport.
“Because addiction takes you away from everything. That’s all it ever does. It wants you on your own.”
Reflecting on his Strictly journey, he added: “Now I’m going in front of millions of people doing something I’m not very good at. I used to think, ‘I can’t do things like that’ but now I’ve got the opportunity to try.”
It is unknown what fee Paul accepted to take part in Strictly.
Paul felt suicidal ‘every day’
At the height of his gambling issues, Paul admitted he contemplated suicide “every day,” explaining the only relief he felt was when he had “nothing left”.
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“When I got to zero I was like, ‘I don’t have to do this any more’. How mad is that? I was playing at Aston Villa playing away at Charlton. No one ever shared a room with me because I was gambling and never slept in the afternoon and I wanted to break my fingers so I couldn’t pick the phone up – that’s how bad the compulsion was,” he stated.
In 2019, Paul confessed that he gambled away around £7 million in total.
Read more: Strictly star Paul Merson in ‘agony’ and ‘struggling to walk to the shops’ amid health battle
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