Pop star Joss Stone is broke after using her fortune to buy her way out of a recording contract.
The singer racked up an estimated £10 million after shooting to fame, and was recently named alongside Adele in a list of Britain's Young Rich stars.
But she reveals her bank balance shrank significantly when she handed over the bulk of her earnings to bosses at record company EMI to get out of her deal in 2009.
She says, "I don't have that kind of money. It all went when I left EMI. I was flat even, down to nothing. I wasn't even down to a million in the bank. What I had left was my house and three flats in Exeter and that was it."
Now Joss insists she is better off without wads of cash, adding, "Money is the thing that people hold over you but to me it was just cotton balls. Don't let it suffocate you. Don't let yourself need it that much. I just thought, 'I'm free. I'll go out and play some gigs and earn my living.'"
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