ME M and my MONEY

KATE Thornton, the TV and radio presenter, has never again been able to command the fees she earned while she was presenting The X Factor.

Thornton, who was sacked from the show without warning by Simon Cowell in 2007, says the years she presented The X Factor were the most lucrative of her life.

But she believes TV and radio presenters are actually over-rewarded for what they do.

A savvy bargain hunter who was once so poor she struggled to afford a normal diet, Thornton recently founded cashback website TBSeen so she could get bigger discounts when shopping for well-known brands.

She is also a successful landlord, personally managing her own buy-tolet property portfolio. She has cannily doubled the money she has invested in the profitable London housing market.

Her biggest indulgences are a daily bath in a £3,000 handmade tub and a home filled with expensive scented candles by Jo Malone.

Now 44, she lives in Dulwich, South-East London, with her eightyear-old son Ben.