On Sunday’s episode of Rich House Poor House, Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, who is worth nearly £200m, swapped lives with council flat tenant Ocean.
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While the single mum got to experience Barrie’s life of luxury, staying in his six-bedroom mansion with a private chef and a chauffeured Rolls Royce, the wealthy businessman lived as Ocean for five days.
At the end of the experience, the pair met up and Barrie decided to change aspiring chef Ocean’s life forever by helping her to create a baby food venture.
He said: “When I spoke to your friend Leah, she mentioned about the baby food and how you helped her with her children, freezing it you’d always be there and make more batches for her.
“To me that really struck as there is definitely a market for baby food.
“I’m thinking that maybe there’s an opportunity for us both.
“I’d like to work out how we can set up some kind of brand.
“I will back you, and I’ll back you with an initial £250,000.
“From that you need to find some premises and a professional kitchen, we can help you with that kind of stuff, our guys will set up websites with you.
“And then I’ll go with you to some of the supermarkets and we’ll figure out how to get your products onto the shelves.”
Breaking down in tears, Ocean said: “I was not thinking this experience would change my life in the long run.”
She later added: “I’m so shocked that they want to invest their time and money in me. I’m lost for words.
“I’m so excited for the future. I’m over the moon.”
Viewers were left in tears by the heartwarming gesture.
One Twitter user said: “Prob late to the party cos I’m sure it’s prob a rerun but Barry and Scott on #RichHousePoorHouse are two of the nicest people, their kindness makes me wanna cry!”
Another said: “Its great they’re helping out.”
Speaking to Fabulous, Barrie said: “I absolutely love Ocean and her daughter.
“I want to see them get out of the poverty trap and make something of themselves, and I believe that she can do it.
“£250,000 is a lot of money but the truth of the matter is a business needs a good injection of cash right from the start to give it a boost.
“This initial amount should be the boost she needs to get her food business off the ground.
“At the end of the day I don’t want to waste any of my money, I want to make more money and I think with Ocean, I can do that.”
Barrie admitted the producers were shocked when he said he was giving such a generous gift.
He added: “They were literally on the floor.
“There is no point messing around, if we are going to do this and I am going to put my name to it, she needs the initial boost in cash and a lot more where that came from.
“We want to create something spectacular for the people of Essex that we can eventually roll out in other parts of the UK.”
And it wasn’t the only treat Barrie had in store.
As well as decorating her home and getting her a new bed, he also offered to pay for Ocean and her friend to fly out to Florida, which was a bucket list trip destination for her.
He said: “So I noticed in your house you have a lot of things from Florida?”
Ocean explained: “Whenever my friends go on holiday, I say bring me back a fridge magnet so it looks like I’ve been there.”
Barrie added: “So you haven’t been to Florida?” to which Ocean replied: “No.”
The multimillionaire continued: “How would you like to get your own fridge magnet and come and spend a couple of weeks, both of you, at my house in Florida?”
Ocean welled up saying: “Omg, I’m so excited.”
During Sunday’s episode, Barrie, who made history with ex-partner Tony for being Britain’s first gay dads, stayed in Ocean’s tiny two-bedroom council flat, where she lives with eight-year-old daughter Oziana.
Speaking to Fabulous ahead of Sunday’s episode, Manchester-born Barrie, who is a dad-of-eight said: “I was not keen at first to be honest with you.
“I thought ‘hell no, I’ve lived that s***y council house life and I never want to live it again’.
“But I thought it might be nice to take my kids to see how the other half live and what it was like for me growing up with nothing.”
Upon arrival, the council flat was a far cry from the houses he lives in, which have a minimum of six bedrooms and full 24/7 staff including a driver and personal barman.
He said: “I had left the Rolls Royce at home with my driver for the other family so we ended up in an Uber.
“I could see a lot of depressing boarded up windows and doors, and people scurrying through the streets like they had somewhere important to go.”
One of the worst parts of his entrance to the council estate was that there was no parking and he was forced to walk on foot.
He continued: “As we pulled up at the side of a street with no road, and no parking facilities, we walked with our cases past several buildings.
“I felt out of my depth, that’s for sure.”
Barrie was joined by fiance Scott, 28, and their two-year-old daughter Valentina – and his other daughter Saffron, who previously said she’d cry if she had less than $1m in the bank, visited during the week.
A few years ago, Barrie confirmed he had fallen for daughter Saffron’s ex Scott, and they are now engaged, and also share baby Romeo.
Speaking of their initial reaction to their council flat, Barrie said: “When we arrived, Valentina said, ‘wow this is a huge house’ thinking that the whole apartment block was one house.
“She’s not used to neighbours.
“Saffron was shocked when I gave her a tour of the whole apartment as it is the same size as her walk-in wardrobe at home.”
But it wasn’t all as terrible as Barrie had thought it would be.
He added: “I had envisaged that it would be filthy and dirty but the family who lived in the house kept it spotless.
“The bed was not so comfy and the state of the decoration was awful.
“It was so bad that Scott spent one night stripping it and painting it.
“I think they did the best with what they had and they were obviously very proud of what they had, however little it actually was.
“This is most people’s reality after all.”
Barrie was given some cash to live off with his family for five days, and the amount didn’t go down too well.
He said: “As a rule at home, we don’t have a budget, we just buy what we want.
“We were given £57 total, it was a struggle.
“How on earth does anyone survive on £57? Especially with a kid and household bills.”
At the end of the experience, Barrie said: “I missed my shower and my bed, my coffee machine and my chef.
“In fact I missed everything, I love my bubble!”
But he was pleased that he was about to help Ocean, and said he invited her to visit his mansion in the US.
He continued: “I know half the country is struggling right now and I feel for them, I wanted to maybe help at least one family have a better future and taking part in this show, it has helped me to do that.”
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