14 DAY TRIAL // Susan Boyle, the singer discovered on Britain’s Got Talent who went on to become last year’s best selling artist and the hottest newcomer in many years, is having her finances strictly controlled, it has emerged. She’s only given an allowance of about £500 a week, which means she literally can’t afford to furnish her recently purchased house, her brother Gerry reveals for News of the World, as cited by the Daily Mail.
Though, not long ago, word in the media had it that Susan was planning on taking legal action against her brothers to prevent them from talking about such personal matters to the press, it seems Gerry Boyle is still at liberty to do so. According to him, Susan’s management is keeping a very strict tab on her expenses, even though she’s made many millions of pounds this past year and could, consequently, afford to be much better off than she is right now.
Susan only has £500 a week to spend and doesn’t even have a credit card. “Her brother said the limit meant she did not have enough money to properly furnish her new £300,000 five-bedroom home. The 49-year-old is said to have resorted to shopping at Tesco for outfits and at times travelled by bus because of her financial arrangements. Brother Gerry Boyle claimed she had reacted with ‘distress’ because she is struggling to deal with how strictly controlled her finances are. Much of her money is understood to be ‘ring-fenced’ and not immediately available to her, while some is thought to be invested,” the Mail writes.
According to Gerry Boyle, Susan has made so far an estimated £10 million in royalties only, as her debut album, the aptly titled “I Dreamed a Dream,” sold 8.5 million copies. However, she didn’t see much of this money, as her management team took over her finances almost instantly, allowing her to buy only so many things with it, the singer’s brother claims. On the other hand, the exact state of the relationship Susan has with Gerry Boyle is not known – for all we know, and if we were to believe rumors, they could not even be on speaking terms.
“When Susan realized she can’t just walk into a bank and take out her own money she had a fit because she thought she was down to her last few quid. Her millions are ring-fenced but Susan has no concept of money. She was extremely distressed. She lives in fear of losing everything and returning to her old life before she made it big. Susan said to me, ‘I’ve been told I get £500 a week because I’m a novice. I don’t have the money to go and buy the furniture.’ So she’s still stuck in the small council house where we all grew up. She should be able to walk into a bank anywhere and say she wants £50,000 cash. That may not be advisable, but it would be her choice because it’s her money,” Susan’s brother tells the British tabloid.
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