Shropshire Star

Tycoon John Caudwell reveals lavish lifestyle

Billionaire John Caudwell, whose country home is on the Shropshire border, has given TV viewers a glimpse of his other address – a £90 million mansion in London's ultra-exclusive Mayfair.

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The former Phones 4U boss featured in Anne Robinson's new programme, Britain's Spending Secrets, which was broadcast on BBC 1.

Mr Caudwell, who lives at Broughton Hall, Eccleshall, uses his London home for entertaining and charity work.

Ms Robinson was given a tour of the mansion, one of the largest London homes outside the Crown Estate.

The property is so big that it even features its own ballroom.

The presenter expressed amazement at the size of the home, and was particularly taken with its massive "Sultan" bed and enormous bathroom.

But she felt more at home in Mr Caudwell's more comfortable kitchen within the house, where he made her prawn pizza and she gently teased him about his £3,000 jackets complete with monogrammed gold buttons.

But the billionaire, who pledged to give away much of the fortune he amassed from the sale of Phones 4U, admitted to Ms Robinson that money couldn't buy him happiness.

He said his fortune had not been able to help his ill son, now aged 19, and his voice broke as he told of his worries for his elderly mother.

But he said that hosting his charity events in the Mayfair mansion had given him "immense pleasure".

From her tour of the mansion and the life of a man with more money than he could ever spend, Ms Robinson went to interview people forced to use food banks because of poverty.

She also spoke to a woman who hoarded clothes bought from charity shops, a mother spending £190 on sunglasses for her daughter and the retired folk now spending their money on sub aqua and skydiving among other extreme sports.

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