I grew up poor living in mum’s caravan & now I’m worth £1.5BN – BEST thing wealth taught me was how to spot a golddigger
A MAN who grew up living in his mum’s caravan has revealed how he’s worth £1.5billion – and how to spot a golddigger.
John Caudwell, 71, has been named on the Sunday Times Rich List – but says he came from humble beginnings.
The dad now lives in a lavish £250million mansion in Mayfair, but there was a time when he lived in a caravan with his mum in Stoke-on-Trent.
John started out selling mobile phones in 1987, and almost two decades later flogged off his company Phones4u for £1.46b.
He now says one thing he’s soaked in since banking the eye-watering 10-figure sum is how to spot someone who’s just after his money.
The 71-year-old told the Times: “You can never be certain but I think I’d recognise a gold-digger from a hundred yards off, you know?
“They wouldn’t survive five minutes because of my questioning process, my interview process.”
John explained that when he met his first wife Kate McFarlane he was “poverty-stricken” and living in his mum’s caravan – and remained there when they got married.
But after they split after 25 years in 2001, he realised he’d have to be careful who he settled down with next.
He had the same sense of caution after he split from Claire Johnson, his partner of 15 years, in 2014.
John explained he almost has to conduct an “interview process” – without the women knowing.
And his current wife Modesta Vzesniauskaite, who’s 31 years his junior, passed that test.
It was one day when John was standing on the shore with her that he pointed out his luxury superyacht Titania.
The 71-year-old explained: “Since then she’s always said: ‘You made me cringe when you put your arm around me and cringe even more when you told me it was your boat. Because I thought, there’s another rich man trying to buy me.’”
John’s not the only wealthy person to come from a poverty-stricken home.
Who is John Caulwell?
John Caudwell was born on October 7, 1952, and is known for being a British billionaire businessman and philanthropist who co-founded the mobile phone retailer Phones 4u.
Back in 1987 John and his brother Brian registered Midland Mobile Phones as a mobile phone wholesaler, initially taking 26 Motorola mobiles at £1,350 each.
The business eventually became the Caudwell Group – part of which was an independent mobile phone network service provider called Singlepoint and also Phones 4u.
Fast forward to 2003 and John sold Singlepoint to Vodafone for £405m and then in 2006 he sold his Phones 4u empire for £1.5billion.
One self-made multi-millionaire told of how she went from being “as poor as a church mouse” to the most expensive divorce lawyer in London.
Ayesha Vardag, known as the ‘Diva of Divorce’, charges clients – many of whom are mega wealthy – a whopping £1,200 per hour (plus VAT) for her services.
The 55-year-old, who splits her time between London and Florence, represents celebrities, footballers and even royalty in cases that often run into the hundreds of millions of pounds.
Elsehwhere, a dad who was raised on a tough council estate and once mocked for wearing hand-me-downs told of how he’s now a multi-millionaire.
Mark Harvey, 34, says his family were so poor that it led him to become “obsessed” with making money from a young age.
The dad-of-four is now leading a very different life from what he did growing up.
Mark has made millions of pounds in the software, construction, and property business and lives in a multi-million-pound mansion in Bretby, Derbyshire.
