AT 36, Millie Mackintosh is navigating divorce for the second time in her life, after her seemingly fairytale marriage to Hugo Taylor collapsed earlier this year.
It’s the latest hurdle after a difficult few years, which has seen the star quit drinking and come to terms with an ADHD and anxiety diagnosis, which she had previously numbed with booze and prescription drugs. As she faces the pitfalls of divorce, insiders tell us why she has been left worrying about money and the lengths she’s gone to, to protect herself.
After seven years of marriage, Millie and Hugo, who are parents to Sienna, five, and Aurelia, four, filed for divorce earlier this month. The pair are yet to comment on the break-up but insiders suggested that Millie’s massive lifestyle overhaul played a part in the decision.
Suddenly, Millie, who is worth roughly £6million from her various business ventures over the years, went from a shared income with Hugo, who runs a luxury eyewear company, to fending for herself once again.
Hugo is thought to be worth around £4million – he launched luxury eyewear brand Taylor Morris off the back of his MIC fame, and it’s been a huge hit with the likes of everyone from David Gandy to the Beckhams.
An insider explained: “Millie has always made her own money; she didn’t rely on Hugo, but it is, of course, very different when there are two people instead of just one.
“Almost overnight, friends noticed a huge difference in her spending habits. Suddenly, she started to cut back and seemed to be really thinking about what she was buying.
“She’s worked so hard for what she’s created, and it’s terrifying not knowing what will happen. It’s causing her crippling anxiety.
“It’s very surprising to see someone like Millie fretting about money, but like any couple who has separated, it’s a shock to the system, and it will take time and effort working out how she will maintain her current lifestyle.”
Most people know Millie as one of the original cast members of Made In Chelsea – the reality show about some of London’s wealthiest 20-somethings.
She was billed as a chocolate heiress when she first burst onto the scene in 2011, but was determined to be known as more than that.
Her great-great-grandfather, John, was a Victorian entrepreneur, known as the Toffee King, who created Mackintosh’s sweet company.
A generation later, her great-grandfather and his brother invented Quality Street, which Brits know and love today, but they sold it in 1988.
Millie insisted: “People severely overestimate how wealthy I am.
“I’m routinely referred to as the heir to the Quality Street fortune, as though I hit 21 and inherited millions. If only.
“It’s not as if I get a cut every time someone eats a toffee. My family sold the business years ago. I’m comfortable, but I don’t live a flash life.”
Millie, real name Camilla, definitely has a comfortable life – her parents, Nigel and Georgina, brought her up in a £1.4million townhouse in Bath.
And as soon as she was old enough, Millie started working. She was a waitress at first and was working in Space NK when she was approached about her place on MIC when she was just 21.
She famously dated Hugo on the show, but then met and fell in love with rapper Professor Green. They married in 2013 and split in 2016.
It was a rocky relationship, with Pro Green — real name Stephen Manderson — recently admitting that he had nearly “called off” their nuptials, but they had both felt “pressured” to go through with it.
A decade on from the split, Millie and Pro have reconnected and have bonded over both being diagnosed with ADHD in recent years.
Speaking on Jamie Laing’s Great Company podcast last October, Pro branded her “beautiful”, but added that the pair were toxic for one another at the time of their marriage, describing it as a “trauma bond”.
In another interview, he admitted their quickie divorce had been costly for him.
He told John Bishop: “You know what they say about divorce, it’s expensive, you know why? Because it’s worth it.
“I can’t stop working right now, my mortgage isn’t paid, I am not a house owner. The bank own my house, I own a percentage of it depending on where it sits in the market.”
The summer after their split, she rekindled things with Hugo, and it looked like they would last forever.
Second marriage split
News of their split came as a surprise, but insiders have suggested the writing had been on the wall for some time.
Millie had changed a lot in recent years – she has been open about her massive lifestyle overhaul after quitting drinking in 2022, then dealing with the ADHD and anxiety she had previously numbed with booze and prescription drugs.
What’s more, she revealed last year that, having grappled with her sexuality, she had finally admitted to herself and Hugo that she was also attracted to women.
The pair have now both appointed legal teams and have quietly started divorce proceedings.
A pal said: “Fans will be sad to hear that their relationship is really over, but the pair just want a clean break.
“Millie and Hugo are committed to co-parenting their two young children and keeping everything stable. They are still very amicable with each other and have a lot of respect for one another.
“They want the divorce to go through as painlessly as possible and are focusing on work in the meantime.”
They want the divorce to go through as painlessly as possible
Pal
Millie has always been a grafter – she swiftly turned her reality TV fame into an online following as an influencer, which paved the way for many after her.
She launched her own fashion brand in 2014, proudly saying at the time: “I invested my own money into setting it up.
“I own it, I model it, and they’re my designs. So I would say, yeah, I’ve kind of created my dream.”
But by 2018, the dream was over, and she lost £178,000 of her own money when the company became unsustainable.
It didn’t stop her, though, and she transformed into a lifestyle influencer, with brand deals popping up left, right and centre.
Our insider says: “Don’t be surprised if you see more and more collaborations on Millie’s social media. Her arms are very open to any opportunities that come her way.”
She even wrote a book – Bad Drunk – about her boozing issues.
She has been sober now for over three years and admitted that one of the ways she realised it was such a problem was the fact that it was “stealing her money”.
It hasn’t been an easy road to being financially secure, and the work/life juggle has proved tricky at times since she became a mum.
As a self-employed woman, Millie went back to work just three months after Sienna’s birth and, while it was difficult, she believes it was the best thing for her.
She says she gets up at the crack of dawn to get a head start on emails and tasks.
She explained: “Since becoming a mother, I really want to get the most out of work.
“Your time is your most valuable thing.
“I get up at 5am so I feel I can start my day early enough to get everything I need to do, done.”
She admits she got the “balance wrong” at first when it came to juggling work with kids.
“It weighed on me quite a lot,” she says.
“So I was actually doing some work around this in therapy, and I figured out that my weeks weren’t structured in a way that was beneficial for me and my mental health.
“I had to change the balance.
“And I now have blocked out time in my diary every week, and the kids know that I won’t be working in that time.”
The juggle has no doubt been even harder since her split from Hugo, and just a few days ago, she candidly spoke about her fears, saying: “I think recently I have found it really hard to know how to show up online because of things I’ve got going on in my personal life that I am not going to share online.
“But because I do usually share so much of my life, I felt like this gap, this resistance to posting and like letting you guys in.”
Millie certainly seems to be well aware that sharing her life with fans is helping to pay her bills at the moment, but just how much she will share is yet to be seen.
One thing is for certain, though, with her divorce looming, there is likely to be another very big bill on its way.