Renowned BBC News Anchor Faces Financial Hardship, Experiencing Homelessness by the Seafront

Former newsreader Ed Mitchell scaled the dizzying heights of a glamorous media career before crashing back down to earth and a devastating low when he found himself penniless and homeless, sleeping on Hove Seafront. The respected broadcaster worked for ITN, the BBC, and Sky News, amongst others, and interviewed the likes of Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Tony Blair during his impressive career. At one stage, he earned £100,000 a year and had a lifestyle most of the people watching him on TV could only dream about. However, a move to US broadcaster CNBC signalled the beginning of his downfall.

Ed Mitchell, once a prominent figure in the broadcasting world, experienced a dramatic fall from grace, going from a high-flying career to sleeping rough on Hove Seafront. Mitchell, known for his work with ITN, the BBC, and Sky News, had the opportunity to interview notable figures such as Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Tony Blair. During his peak, he enjoyed a £100,000 annual salary and a lifestyle many envied. However, his move to the American network CNBC marked the start of his decline.

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In a 2008 ITV documentary that followed his journey toward rebuilding his life, Mitchell admitted the irony of his situation: “There is an irony that someone who should be an expert as a business and finance reporter should get their finances in such a state.”

In the same article, he admitted he had been let go from CNBC because of “an alcohol-related incident”.

He managed to muddle through for six years after his sacking, but things finally came to a head, and he had to tell his wife of 25 years, who had tried to intervene about his drinking many times, that bankruptcy was their only option. By mid-2006, he was left with nothing. His wife had divorced him, the house was sold to pay off the mortgage, and he had “no possessions, no income and no idea of what would happen next.”

After a stint of sofa surfing and sleeping in council shelters, he had no option but to take to the streets, where a reporter found him 10 days before Christmas in 2007 and brought his story to public attention, something he admitted made him “uncomfortable”.

However, it also marked a turning point. He was soon the subject of the documentary Saving Ed Mitchell, presented by his ITN colleague Carol Barnes, which detailed his struggles and showed him being given an opportunity to return to presenting if he entered rehab in the Priory. He also landed a book deal and subsequently wrote the bestseller From Headlines to Hard Times, published in 2009. He made enough money from the book’s sales to move into a flat in Shoreham-by-Sea.

In the intervening years, he admits to a relapse and another stint in rehab, but he has managed to pull his life back together. In 2012, he remarried. He met Mandy Tines “in the darkest days of rough sleeping, when she brought me coffee and soup,” so she has seen him at his worst.

In 2009, it was announced he would develop and present programmes for Inexcess Television. In November 2014, he began presenting a daily programme for a new financial radio station, Share Radio, in London. He has also trained aspiring broadcasters, passing on his skills to the next generation, and has maintained steady media work. “The most fortunate escape was getting out of permanent homelessness,” he said in 2020. “Only my past as someone recognisable from TV got me out of that deep ditch.”