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I was the wealthy family on Rich House Poor House – there’s scenes you don’t see & the reason why we were left in tears
IN 2017, a wealthy family switched lives with a single mum-of-four struggling on £170 a week.
Cardiologist Mahrous Alsoud and his consultant paediatrician wife took part in the Channel 5 show Rich House Poor House with their four daughters Yasmin, Angela, Zain and Farah.
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At the time, the family enjoyed a weekly budget of £3,000 a month and lived in a five-bedroom house and each daughter had their own debit card.
They swapped lives with working mum Claire Lees, who had to make £170 last the entire week for her four children.
Now, six years later, Zain is a med student at University and shares updates about her life on social media platform TikTok.
In one such update, she shared scenes from the show as well as photos from parts of their lives that were filmed but never made it into the show.
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In a short, one-minute video, she first showed her sister speaking in disbelief as she said: “£140 on food for one week? Mama…”
Zain then switched the scene to a photo of her and her sister as she said: “Yes guys so that’s me and Ange from that scene. Ange’s the one that’s crying, I’m the one who was in the background doing weird faces.”
The kids, during that scene, burst into floods of tears at how little they had to spend on food for the week.
At the time, Angela said: "It's just stupid how much we spent on food. This lady has £30 left for clothes, petrol, her kids things, her things, going out with friends.
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"It's stupid, we've spent it so stupidly. Claire must handle her money so well or be struggling to provide things for her kids that every kid should have."
Sharing another snap of her family posing outside, she explained that people had been leaving comments on her posts asking if she had been on the Channel 5 show.
And to clear up any confusion, she decided to address the matter and confirm that yes, she was.
“This is one of the scenes we filmed in a park,” she went on, pointing at the photo, before changing it to one of them all together five years later.
She then shared another photo of herself with two of her sisters, where she explained: “Also this is the scene that we filmed in the show where we worked in the community service hall, playing in the band or something. I can’t remember.”
One photo of the family saw them at a place called ‘Chase Wado Kai’, where Zain explained they filmed scenes of them learning karate, but “they didn’t include it and I don’t know why”.
Zain said all her friends “were going a bit crazy” over her appearance on the show at the time.
People were quick to comment as one person wrote: “NO WAY no wonder you looked so familiar”.
Another said: “I loved your parents great role models,” while a third shared: “Love this show and your family episode made me emotional”.
A fourth added: “I thought I saw you! ahhh I thought your family was so lovely.”
At the time of the show, the two families spent a week living each other's lives before they both went back to their own homes.
Marhous said that one thing it had taught him was how much of a hard-working mum Claire was.
He said: "Claire was such an inspiration and a great example of a hard working single mother doing everything she can for her children to try and help them to flourish.”
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Speaking about how it impacted his kids, he added: “I think it showed the kids that situations could happen where you might not have a job and you have to be prepared.
"There are no guarantees so you have to be prepared for everything."
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