Caprice Bourret tells The Unbiased Podcast how she capitalised on fame to build a multi-million pound empire.

“Male investors only agreed to see me because they wanted to meet me. I was the hot ticket at the time. I had to totally surprise them to get them to invest millions of pounds,” the US model and actress tells Unbiased CEO and founder Karen Barrett.

Model and actress Caprice Bourret who catapulted to fame in the late 1990s as a model and starred in TV shows such as Baywatch and Hollyoaks, tells the newly launched Unbiased Podcast, how she had to smash stereotypes to get the investment she needed to launch her own business.

Caprice, 50 who says she was inspired to become an entrepreneur by her single mum, calls herself a grafter and says: “I went into those meetings totally prepared. It was really difficult because of that ‘model’ stereotype. I had to keep knocking down doors and keep picking myself back up.”

She explains to Karen Barrett, CEO of Unbiased, a platform that connects people with trusted, regulated financial experts for free, that she had to stalk the then Chief Executive of Debenhams, in order to get her own lingerie range stocked in store.
“I’d been making a lot of money for other people and wanted to do it for myself,” she says. “I’m from a humble background and I know what it’s like to live on bagels, so I had to think of a plan B in my 30s because I knew the gravy train wouldn’t last forever. The hottest store at the time was Debenhams, so I approached Terry Green and suggested he give me a license, which would enable them to sell my range in exchange for a royalty.”