Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett reveals how much Molly-Mae Hague and Matt Hancock were paid for Diary of a CEO podcast

DRAGONS' Den star Steven Bartlett has insisted Molly-Mae Hague and Matt Hancock didn't get a penny appearing on his hit podcast.

The 29-year-old hosts the Diary of a CEO series that has also featured Rochelle Humes and Jimmy Carr.

But he said people beg to appear and the team "absolutely never" pay guests to come on the show.

Steven was replying to a fan who asked during a Q&A: "Have you / would you ever pay a guest?"

The millionaire replied: "I have never and I would never pay a guest to come on. Absolutely never.

"It used to be challenge getting high calibre guests, but when the podcast became more popular that changed.

"Now, the majority of our guests contact us via their PR teams and request to come on and the remaining 20% are people I've DM'd because I'm interested in them."

The podcast has often made headlines thanks to the remarks of its high-profile guests.

Molly-Mae came under fire for comments she made about poverty when she said we "all have the same 24 hours in a day" and that if people want something enough, they can achieve it.

She explained on the podcast: "I understand we all have different backgrounds and we're all raised in different ways and we do have different financial situations, but I think if you want something enough you can achieve it.

"It just depends on what lengths you want to go to get where you want to be in the future. And I'll go to any length."

This month former Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted his Covid affair did not break lockdown laws - and that he was just a man hopelessly in love.

Mr Hancock famously resigned from the Cabinet last summer under a cloud of hypocrisy after the Sun exposed footage of his lockdown-busting clinch. 

But he told the Diary Of A CEO podcast: "I resigned because I broke the social distancing guidelines. By then they weren't actually the law, they were the guidelines.

"But that's not the point. The point is they were the guidelines that I'd been proposing. And that happened because I fell in love with somebody."