Teenage heartbreak drove me to flee home and sleep on the streets – I was lucky to be saved, reveals Channel 4 star
A CHANNEL 4 presenter has revealed he was forced into homelessness after teenage heartbreak.
Matty White has bravely opened up on his challenging start in life in a raw interview.
The food drink presenter was a regular fixture on Steph's Packed Lunch before its axe last year.
But times were tough for the 47-year-old before he found the limelight.
Speaking to the , Matty revealed he left home when he was just 16 - forcing him to sleep rough.
For a period in the early 90s the star spent time on friends' sofas as well as park benches.
He found love with a single mother and the pair moved in together, with Matty revealing he took on a "fatherly role" to her child.
However, unimaginable tragedy struck one day when he arrived home to find her dead.
Matty explained: “One morning I came back and found that she died from an asthma attack.”
The awful turn of events forced him back into homelessness once again before he found a hostal.
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“Eventually I found a hostel for under-21s, then through that, with job seekers' hardship allowance... paid to the hostel to help me manage (the money) they would buy me a food parcel," he explained.
He added: "(The hostel) was helping me to budget and manage money, and cook in a shared kitchen.”
After finding a 'little' one-bedroom flat Matty was able to go back to college to study media.
He then broke into the media industry by landing a gig on BBC Radio Manchester.
He concluded: “I don’t know where my life would have gone without the people and charities that were there.
“So people know, when I stand up and champion the cause, it really means something to me.
“I’m in a privileged place now and love what I do. I’ve made tons of connections through what I do and occasionally people stop and say hello… that’s a world away from feeling unloved sleeping on a park bench. I’m grateful for that every day.”