Big Brother's Imogen Thomas' life is '10 times better' now with £10m fortune (exclusive)

Big Brother's Imogen Thomas, who has amassed a £10million fortune, has declared her life is "10 times better" after reaching the peak of fame.

Speaking on behalf of SafeBettingSites.com, she told Yahoo: "I loved Big Brother. I did love every moment of it but I particularly enjoy my life now. I don’t do setups anymore. I don't do anything. I literally live my life with my children and give them the best that they can have and I just enjoy it now. I think the older you get, you do change your life. Everything changes. So for me now, my life is 10 times better."

Big Brother

It was in the Big Brother house that the reality TV star had been hatching her plan on how she was going to make millions.

She said: "It was the three months in the show that made me think: 'What do I want to do when I get out?' There was a lot of time to think. That’s what I was doing."

Thomas puts her success in the house down to keeping her lips sealed. "Probably because I kept my mouth shut, I'm not gonna lie," she said.

"When I was auditioning for the show, I said I was going to be this person but when I actually went on the show and I actually got the opportunity then I was quite scared.

"I kept thinking, 'Oh my God. How are people perceiving me? How do people feel about me? I want to work after this, etc'. So I kept my mouth shut a little bit. I never offended anyone - apart from the first week."

She advised the housemates to be their true selves, saying: "It's very hard to hide the person who you truly are for a long time. You can do a week but then you are literally struggling after that. So just honestly just enjoy the experience and just be yourself."

Imogen's £10million fortune

After shooting to overnight fame when she appeared on Big Brother in 2006, the glamour model made a success of herself by grafting her place in the spotlight.

Her roaring success saw her make a £10million fortune for herself and she has since lifted the lid on her secret to making so much money.

"It’s a lot of money and don’t forget I pay tax on it all as well," she told us. "I invested as soon as I got off the show. I always knew I wanted property. I had long running contracts with the papers and the mags. I was working for a good 10 years up until the mag went off the market.

"Thanks to them, it really did set me up for life and I was wise enough to invest. I invested in London. There would be properties I would buy and then live in them for one year and then sell them and make £100,000 on that property in the one year. Then I would invest again and then do the same again."

However, Thomas said it would be "impossible" to make money in the same way now. She added: "It’s almost impossible to make money like that these days because of the interest rates now as well. It's impossible to be buying and selling like now. It's really, really hard."

Overnight fame

Adapting to fame wasn't a problem for Thomas but she admitted that it had been a "crazy" time for her.

She said: "Honestly I still remember it now when I came out of the show and went to Topshop the next day and I was recognised everywhere and everyone wanted pictures and I couldn't get anything done and I was just like, 'What the heck is this?' Because it was so massive back then and none of us knew how big it was.

"But I quickly adapted to it. I thought: 'I've just got to lap it up.' Enjoy this 15 minutes or whatever it is just gonna take it all in and just completely enjoy it. I just went to every party."

"That was crazy," she said of rising to overnight fame.

Imogen Thomas' life now

Life couldn't be more different now for the glamorous star whose world revolves around her two young daughters Siera and Ariana.

"My girls love to see me on morning TV," she said.

But the reality TV queen does keep her mummy duties "totally separate" from the limelight. "I do sometimes put them on my Instagram," she said.

"But my girls have their own personalities. My 10-year-old was doing her 11 plus and she now has her own thing going on and sometimes she will say, 'Mummy don't put that up.' I'll be like, 'OK. You are your own person.'"

Showing her children's cheeky side, she said sometimes they make her blush when they ask the event organiser if there is a goodie bag.

With humour, she said: "It's the first thing they ask. I'm like, 'Please don't ask'. But they say that in front of the person who invited me."

Of her romances, Thomas said she was careful about who she goes out with.

"I'm very wary about who I go out with," she said. "I hardly ever go out with anyone in the public eye. I'm a serious, private person.

"I've always been quite private with who I am seeing. I see this as my job and I see my private life as my private life. You know why they are with you then."

Watch Big Brother's live eviction on Friday at 9pm on ITVX and ITV2

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