I was the millionaire on Rich House, Poor House – I was a workaholic and without the show my young son would be dead
A MILLIONAIRE who appeared on Rich House, Poor House, which sees families swapping places for a week, has told how the show saved his son's life.
In 2017, Matt Fiddes traded his six-bedroom mansion in Royal Wootton Bassett for Andy Leamon and his disabled wife Kim's four-bed home on a council estate in Southampton for the Channel 5 show.
The millionaire, who lives in a six-bed mansion in 60 acres of land, appeared alongside his two daughters – Lola, then 11, and Savannah, ten, from his first marriage and two sons, Zach, four, and Hero, two, with wife Moniqe.
Matt, who owns a chain of 700 martial arts schools and used to work as Michael Jackson’s bodyguard, and his family, swapped lives with the Leamons, who have two children - Freddie ten, and Olivia, eight.
In stark contrast to Matt and Moniqe's £1,500 weekly spend, the Leamon's had a strict £171 budget and struggled to get by since an accident at work left Kim with Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome, and unable to walk unaided.
But it was more than a few life lessons that Matt has to thank the show for - as quite incredibly, he claims that agreeing to participate actually helped to save his son's life.
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In a clip posted to TikTok (@steven.sulley), Matt could be seen speaking on Steven Sulley's podcast and explains: "If it wasn't Rich House, Poor House, my son would be dead...I wouldn't have been home.
"So this particular Sunday morning, my boy hero, I named him right - that's for sure, had a runny nose and was a bit grumpy.
"Normally I wouldn't be home but because of Rich House, Poor House, I made this commitment to be at home on weekends with my family."
The former lifeguard goes on to say that being a bodyguard and doing what he does with martial arts, he's "very heavily" trained in first aid.
"Now, Moniqe was going shopping, she put the two boys in the back of the car, she looked back because Zach has said, 'there's something wrong with Hero,'" he recalls.
"She looked back and he was blue."
Matt says he ran out to the car and his partner handed him a baby which was blue and not breathing.
"I checked for a heartbeat and it was very faint," he says. "First reaction, you think, is that he's choking.
"I put my hand down and couldn't find nothing, and then his heartbeat was going on me, and then it went on me completely.
"It was just me and him on the floor doing CPR mouth to mouth."
He remembers how Moniqe was on the phone "screaming" to the ambulance: "Get here quick!"
However, Matt claims: "There was no ambulance available because England is screwed.
"They got a first response car with us in like 20 to 25 minutes and an ambulance turned up 45 minutes later."
Matt says he was shouting at them to send him anyone - be it a policeman or fireman, anyone.
"It turned out they pressed the wrong button," he says. "They pressed the button for, like, a broken leg.
"The only person who responded to it was somebody who saw the call out."
Matt recalls how a paramedic gave up her lunch break and rushed to the scene to take over doing CPR from him.
"He basically had a seizure in the back of the car," he explains.
"It lasted so long that his heart stopped and I had performed CPR on him and kept it going."
Matt has previously spoken about his time one the show, saying: “I found out exactly what Andy Leamon is all about, what he does, how he lives and what his values are in life. He’s a superhero in my eyes."
After being so moved by the family, Matt broke the rules of the show and bought Kim a brand new mobility scooter, which the family says has transformed their life.
