Trinny Woodall: Exs Suicide Sparks £180M Beauty Empire

has spoken out about the financial struggles that led her to starting her eponymous £180million beauty empire. 

The What Not To Wear star, 62, appeared on the latest episode of 's Begin Again podcast, in which she detailed how she was left in a financial spiral after her ex-husband Johnny Elichaoff died by suicide in 2014. 

The couple were married from 1999 before separating in 2007 and officially divorcing in 2009. The entrepeneur passed away just five years later after a number of 'terrible investments', which left Trinny with debts of £300k, despite being divorced. 

Speaking to Davina, Trinny, who shares 22-year-old daughter Lyla with her ex, detailed the financial woes and how Trinny London came to be: 'I was fighting in court that I should be liable for Johnny's debts... 

'I was paying lawyers' bills, and then I had to ultimately pay, starting the business I needed some money. So there was like, all this s**t was going on.'

Former drummer and businessman Johnny died at the age of 55, from jumping 50ft to his death having taked a 'potentially fatal' amount of painkillers. He had been sectioned two weeks previously for attempting to take his life in the same place.

Prior to the incident, he confided in that he had made 'terrible investments in oil', saying: 'I’ve lost everything and I don’t know what to do. I feel stupid now trying to kill myself but I don’t know what I’m going to do. I have got nothing left.'

The debts surmounted to £300k, which, via a legal loophole were left to Trinny, as he had been declared bankrupt prior to the divorce meaning she was a trustee. 

She was forced to enter a high court battle, after creditors pursued her for the sum - with one claim being that she should have been paying him maintenance - however in late 2016, a judge ruled to clear the debts as the case had 'no merit'. 

Speaking to Davina about how she managed with the pressure and navigated the financial issues, she said: 'I wasn't working so much...

'Residue income was drying up. I knew I wanted to start the business. Johnny died. There was a lot of stuff to deal with, lots of the advice was just go get a regular job, first I thought, what would I do? I didn't know...

'I really just had this now or never I really had it. It was like I knew I had to do it and I knew it would be challenging and it was challenging because nobody that I went to, I mean, I first of all sort of bootstrapped it...

'And then I did a clothing sale in my house because I knew I was going to have to rent my house out because I couldn't afford the mortgage and the mortgage was changing... 

'I was fighting in court that I should be liable for Johnny's debts, and I was paying lawyers bills, and then I had to ultimately pay, starting the business I needed some money. So there was like, all this s**t was going on.'

When Davina then asked about finally taking the plunge into Trinny London, she went on: 'When we have ideas inside our head, they're safe Davina, you know, we don't have to execute on them. We can live the fantasy of them...

'We can sit down next to somebody at dinner and talk about our idea. It gives us a Raison d'être. It makes us feel significant and relevant, but we're never taking it outside our head, so it's safe....

'We never have to feel failure, but we never see success. And at some stage you have to take it out of your head. So for me, I think things have to become pulled away from you... But just that sense of you have to be, it's so raw...

'There's no superficial reasoning to prevent you from actually making the f**king decision and doing it. That's the thing. So it was like everything came together and that was then the catalyst.' 

Trinny launched her brand in 2017, having previously said: 'Always that thing of an entrepreneur—when do you get it out of your head and onto the kitchen table'.