I’d cry if I had less than $1m in the bank, I’ve spent $85k in a day by hotel pool– dad hit the roof but it’s only money
CHECKING your bank balance is a sweat-inducing time for most people, but things are a little different for Saffron Drewitt-Barlow.
The 21-year-old daughter of Britain’s first gay dads, former partners and multi-millionaires Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow, only gets stressed if she has less than ONE MILLION in the bank.
It’s perhaps not surprising given she was brought up with a $5,000 monthly allowance for “essentials” and also have a limitless credit card for anything else she needed.
A lot of that would go on designer gear and beauty appointments, as Saffron has previously revealed in her weekly Fabulous column Saffy’s Absolutely Fabulous Life.
This week she’s opening up about money. The monthly allowance is a thing of the past now she has her own beauty line bringing in cash, as well as the $15million Tony recently gave her following a business windfall.
But her spending, including $100,000 on surgery, has most definitely not slowed down…
“I don’t feel comfortable saying how much I have in the bank, but it’s a lot. Anything below a million is like, ‘Oh f**k.’ I can’t let it get that low, I’d cry.
It’s my own money now, but when I was growing up I got $5,000 every month as an allowance. Obviously anything else I asked for I got, so that was more for essentials – cash for bits and pieces I needed.
I used to just go into a mall and spend it, once I went into a Juicy Couture shop and just did $10,000 in a few minutes. I well went over my allowance, just like that.
It didn’t matter though because I had my Amex Platinum card as well. I could spend whatever I wanted on that and my dads just paid it off, it was limitless. I still have that now, if I need anything I just bung it on there.
We all have one, me and my brothers Aspen, 21, Orlando, 17 and twins Dallas and Jasper, 11. Originally the idea was in case we got stuck somewhere, or if something happened when we were out, we’d have money. But obviously we don’t just use it for that.
Dad [Tony] has always thought I spend too much, daddy [Barrie] doesn’t care. It doesn’t stop me, I do what I want – the money is there, I might as well spend it.
The majority of my cash day-to-day goes on VIP tables in clubs, bottles of drink and holidays.
I’m in our family mansion in Tampa, Florida, most of the time, but I jet to Las Vegas or Los Angeles when I want to go out. When it’s not Covid times, I fly my friends over from England. Always Upper Class, then it’s another $20k or $30k on the table in Las Vegas for us all – usually between five and eight of us.
Growing up I got $5,000 every month as an allowance. Obviously anything else I asked for I got, so that was more for essentials – cash for bits and pieces I needed.
Saffron Drewitt-Barlow
Vegas is where I drop the most money, the VIP section can be $20,000 alone, then in the hotels we usually get a cabana so we can do the pool parties, that’s up to $50,000 depending how close to the DJs we are.
I once did $85k during a day at the pool – dad [Tony] was so pi*sed off, but it was worth it.
But you’re in Vegas, you want everything to be VIP or else what’s the point?
It’s basically a holiday so I’m going to go mad. If I can’t have a cabana at the hotel I want the nicest table, then a suite on the top floor, plus shopping and the restaurants.
The suite can be $25,000 a night, then it’s $20,000 for a table in the day, $10,000 to go to a club. If you go to the nice restaurants, that can be $5,000 – $10,000 for everyone to eat well.
I do that once a month. Obviously new shoes, clothes, hair, handbag, nails as well. I need to look the part.
I’ve always been brought up that the richest person at the table picks up the tab. The school I went to was one of the most exclusive in the country, I was just one of loads who are super rich. People went to Dubai, Australia, for the whole school holidays, or they had a house in Barbados and we’d go there for a few weeks.
We expect a certain degree of flashiness, and we don’t care about spending money to maintain our status within the group. There’s a lot of one-upmanship, we all want to have the best and let everyone else know about it.
It’s all about who’s got more, who’s doing more. It’s a competition, all the time.
It’s one of the reason I always try to leave decent tips, always at least 25%
We got a boat in Croatia when we were doing the show Below Deck and I tipped them $15,000.
Recently I got in a muddle after having a tattoo and ended up leaving the artist 75% instead of 25%. It was loads as I was already paying $15,000, but never mind. It’s just money.
I’ve got a nice car, a $90,000 Mercedes, but then the biggest thing I’m spending on at the moment is my new house in Essex.
The build is costing £1.4million, it should hopefully be done by Christmas.
SAFFRON'S FAMILY
Millions will recall pictures of Barrie and Tony cradling week-old twins Saffron and Aspen — born to a surrogate in California in 1999 — as they revealed themselves as the UK’s first gay dads and the first same-sex couple to be named on a birth certificate as parents.
The former couple, now worth £40million from their ventures including a trans-Atlantic surrogacy business and a global medical research company, became civil partners in 2006, then wed as soon as it became legal in the UK in 2014.
Saffron and her brother Aspen were conceived using the donor eggs of one woman, Tracie McCune, and carried in the womb of surrogate Rosalind Bellamy.
Manchester-born Barrie is the biological father of one, and Tony is the dad of the other — so they are actually half-siblings born at the same time.
Aspen, though, does have an identical twin — Orlando, 17. This is because the embryo from which Aspen was born split in two in the lab.
The other half was put on ice for four years before being carried for Barrie and Tony in the womb of a Japanese woman called Donna.
Barrie and Tony also have a second set of twins, Dallas and Jasper, born 11 years ago after Donna acted as surrogate again.
This time the eggs were from a Brazilian model, who Barrie spotted on a catwalk and paid £35,000.
They have now split, with Barrie dating Saffron’s ex Scott, 27. They have four-month-old daughter Valentina together.
Barrie and Tony, who also has a new partner, remain amicable and the self-confessed “happy blended family’ all live together in their mansion in Tampa, Florida.
It’s got six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a stables, a guest house, loads of terrace space and gardens.
The kitchen is costing £90,000 as it’s coming from Italy and I’m splashing £87,000 on the bathrooms to make sure they look good.
I’ve got a furniture budget of £400,000 and I’m spending £1million on art as well. Then I want the finishing touches to be special, so the swimming pool tiles have gold leaf on them.
It’s for the whole family to use, not just me. I’m paying for it but actually I probably won’t be there that much, I prefer being in Florida now.
But it’ll be nice to have a little base in England when I’m visiting.”
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Previously, Saffron revealed she has spent $100k on surgery after trolls said she had flat boobs, now her dad wants her to get more.
She also opened up about her fashion must-haves – and why Primark isn’t one of them.