NATALIE Imbruglia has candidly admitted she “ran out of money” after finding fame on Aussie soap Neighbours – and was forced to bunk in a basement.
The actress and singer, who played Beth Brennan in the hit series from 1992 to 1994, with a brief comeback in 2022, fell on hard times shortly after leaving Ramsay Street.
The Neighbours legend, who later went on to find fame in the music industry, told the Davina McCall Begin Again podcast she simply “ran out of money”.
Now 51, Natalie recalled trying to bag further acting jobs after moving to the UK, yet admitted “things didn’t fall into my lap”.
She told host Davina: “I went to England and I couldn’t get a visa to work as an actress and thats when they really cracked down on Neighbours stars getting English actors’ roles.
“And that was a hard time because I ran out of money.
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“For a few years I was very famous from Neighbours and was doing appearances and appearing in clubs and signing autographs, and just getting wads of cash in envelopes and living like that.
“But that was the first time in my life where everything didn’t fall in my lap and so I just partied – but then the money ran out”.
The Torn hitmaker, who was in her Twenties at the time, talked of penning her first album and said: “I had run out of money and was living in the basement of someone’s house in Chelsea.
“Which was weird because I had no money and I am in Chelsea in this big mansion but I was just in the basement”.
Natalie admitted meditation and “a lot of conversations with God” had seen her through.
She released her debut album, Left of the Middle, in 1997.
It was the same year in which she released debut single Torn.
Previously, Natalie has spoken about her struggle to be taken seriously as a singer and said: “There was a lot of stigma attached to being in a soap. I thought I’d blown any chance of making a serious record because I had been in Neighbours.
“I turned down two record deals because they were very poppy. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but I knew I didn’t want to be manipulated. I may not have had a direction, but I wasn’t stupid.
“My profile dropped off and so did my bank balance, and that was the best thing that ever happened to me.
“I was forced to struggle, which is a normal, healthy part of growing up. I hadn’t gone through that.”