EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison lost 'everything' after accountant scammed her for five years
EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison has revealed the emotional and financial toil of a corrupt accountant who fleeced her for five years.
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Ms Fergison, 59, said the accountant pocketed all of her income and assets, and also did not pay her tax to HRMC, meaning she "lost everything".
She discovered she had been scammed after exiting Celebrity Big Brother in 2012 and felt "crushing panic" as she confronted her new reality of being penniless.
"Going broke when you’re famous is the worst, because everyone expects you to have lots of money. People assume that you’re minted," Ms Fergison writes in her new autobiography, Behind The Scenes, published by The Mirror.
"They don’t imagine you’re juggling overdrafts, maxed out credit cards, payday loans and mountains of bills. But that was exactly where I found myself."
Read more: ‘I thought I’d die’: EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison reveals secret womb cancer battle
Ms Fergison said she wanted to "pulverise" the accountant when she discovered the depth of his deception.
She writes: "I wanted to grab him by the collar and scream in his face. I wanted him to feel the crushing panic I’d felt, the betrayal and the grief."
“I don’t use the word hate very often. It's a heavy word, one you can’t always take back, but in this case, I meant it. I hated him. Not just for what he did, but for how he made me feel about myself.
“For the mess he left behind. For every sleepless night, every tear, every humiliating phone call to the tax office, to banks, to friends trying to figure out how the hell I was going to keep my head above water."
In her new book, Ms Fergison also recounts the moment she knew her eight-year marriage to her first husband, Jay Saddiqi, the father of her child Alex.
She said she smelt a woman's perfume on him and suspected he had been cheating.
After some "solid detective work", Ms Fergison claims she confronted Mr Saddiqi and the woman in a "makeshift love nest".
“That night, I packed up the car, strapped Alex into his seat and drove to London. Leaving my marriage and Jay behind," she said.
Despite tumultuous difficulties in her personal life, Ms Fergison said she's a "survivor".
"It’s not that I’m a glass half full person; I just know I am lucky to have a glass at all," she added.