I was a dropout at 15, a single mum at 17 ... and made my first million by 23

Canny Kate’s rise from jobless teen to property queen with £250k diamonds.

Grafter ... Kate Stewart has earned her success

SCHOOL dropout Kate Stewart dreamed of working in a chip shop when she was a child.
But her appetite for business has made the glam mum of three a millionaire.

Teen mum ... Kate with daughter Caitlin

Walking out of school aged 15, she failed to get any GCSEs and before she was 18, she was pregnant.
Facing a life on benefits, Kate had a light-bulb moment when the electricity in her house cut out as she was cradling her baby.

She talked her way into a secretarial job at a Liverpool company — and ended up running it.
The entrepreneur, who made her first million by the age of 23, says: “I’ve always wanted to make money, always had it in me and always wanted better things.”

Kate invested her earnings in property, pubs, beauty salons and an outdoor market and now leads an extravagant life, with £25,000 shopping sprees and £250,000 diamonds the norm.
The 33-year-old says: “When I was a kid I wanted to work in the chippy because I thought you’d get free chips.
“I grew up on a normal council estate and went to a normal school.
“I was clever, I was doing well but then I lost all interest. It bored me. Consequentially I started to skip school and left at 15.”

Pride and joy ... with Olivia, Caitlin, Grayson and Graydon

Kate, from Liverpool, grew up with her grandma Mary, a maternity nurse, and electricity board worker grandad Michael. She recalls: “They couldn’t afford to give me the things I wanted so I used to work for it. I worked on a burger van in the city centre, when I was 14.

Wedded bliss ... Kate with hubby Graham on their big day

“I did it Monday, Thursday and Friday nights, and Saturdays, but still used to get up and go to school.”

Kate left school at 15 and got a full-time job. She says: “I didn’t get any GCSEs. I went and got a job in a sports shop for £2.50 an hour.

“My mum, Mary, used to drop me off at school and I remember her saying to the staff, ‘I drop her at the gate and she runs out the back and jumps over the wall. What more can I do?’”

Kate is mum to five-month-old twin boys Grayson and Graydon with her property developer husband, Graham, 42.
But after giving birth to daughter Caitlin a month before her 18th birthday, Kate explains the road to her success was far from easy.
She says: “I was with Caitlin’s dad and on the contraceptive pill but nobody had explained to me that if you’re on antibiotics it cancels the Pill out.
“When I got pregnant I was completely shocked, I was terrified of telling my family. I was only a kid myself.
“I look at my own daughter, she’s 16 now, and think, ‘Oh my god’. I didn’t realise how much of a child I was.

No expense spared ... Kate pays for private school fees for daughter Caitlin, 16

“When I told my nan she cried. My family were disappointed but supportive. “I never thought about terminating. God had given us a child and we just had to deal with it. “My boyfriend was happy too. But after I had Caitlin, we split up.”

Lifestyles of the rich and famous ... Kate on Channel 5 show How The Other Half Lives

It was when her little girl was just a few months old that unemployed Kate had an epiphany.
She explains: “I was living with my nan and grandad. I was sitting in the house and the electricity went. I never had money to put in the electricity meter, it was always on a card.

“I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to change my life. This is not for me’.” Kate enrolled on a part-time beauty course, got a job as a beautician and then landed a job as a secretary on Liverpool’s Heritage Market.
She says: “I had great support from my family with minding Caitlin.

“I heard about a guy coming up from Camden Market, London, to take over the Heritage Market and make it the ‘Camden of the North’. “I asked him for a job. I saw it as my opportunity. At first he told me to ‘f*** off’ but I rang every day and eventually he said I could be the secretary.”

Kate worked her way up to head cashier and by the age of 23 was running the market. She says: “A lot of it was self-taught. I did an access course at college and then a degree, three nights a week, while working full time. Work helped pay for it.

“Because I was doing a good job of running the market, my boss gave me really good money and at the time you could buy a property in Liverpool for around £5,000. “I started buying properties, beauty salons, and opening off-licences. My mum and dad were in the pub trade so I started buying and selling pubs too.”
Kate bought Liverpool’s Heritage Market aged 25 and revamped it.
She says: “When I took over the Heritage it was riddled with counterfeit goods and the council wanted to shut it.
“I completely cleaned it up. It went from 80 traders to 150 and I made it into the biggest tourist destination in the city.
“I also opened it up as a nightclub where they would do warehouse raves. It was also a film location for Nowhere Boy (the John Lennon biopic) and Sherlock Holmes (the 2009 Robert Downey Jr film). I opened a night café for taxi drivers.
“The market would start at 6am and I’d open the nightclub when it closed. I would be there until 7 in the morning. Through the weekend I would work 48 hours straight. “Caitlin would stay with her dad or my family, or sometimes come and see me.”

Three years later, Kate was living in a luxury house and buying designer clothes. She says: “By the time I was 28, I felt like I could really splash out on things. “I have travelled all over the world and done everything I wanted to do. I went to Dubai about seven times, staying in the Atlantis hotel. I have been to Thailand, Mauritius and the Maldives.

“When you have never had money before, it goes to your head a little bit when you’re young. I would go to a designer boutique in Liverpool and spend £25,000 on clothes. “Even at work and on the market, I would have a £5,000 coat on.

“I have had parties for Caitlin that have cost a fortune. “For her 13th I had marquees put up in the garden, bouncy castles, rodeo bulls, sweet stands and fairground rides. “Because I was from a humble background, speaking with a heavy Scouse accent, I believed I had to prove myself. I don’t feel like that any more.”
The Heritage Market was turned into a hotel in 2012.

Since Kate handed over the reins she has become a global consultant on markets and concentrated on expanding her property portfolio. Although she still enjoys the finer things in life — she and Graham got married at the Sandals resort in St Lucia in 2013 she insists she remembers where she started and keeps her feet on the ground.

Now pregnant with her fourth child and step-mum to Graham’s 11-year-old daughter, Olivia, she says: “I have a nice house and a nice car but the most important thing is I give my children a good education.
“Caitlin has always gone to a private school. Because I did it the hard way, I won’t let my daughter do that. She is aiming for A-stars.”

Earlier this month Kate appeared on Channel 5’s Eamonn and Ruth: How the Other Half Lives, where she was filmed spending £242,000 on diamonds. She says: “I will splash out every now and again. In the programme it showed me buying diamonds. People wonder how you can spend that much.

“But I’m not going out spending on alcohol, shoes and clothes. “Everything I buy is for investment.
“The price of diamonds will never go down. It’s not like I’m buying shoes or a handbag for £10,000 and it goes out of fashion. I invest.

“I don’t spend that much on myself, everything goes on my kids now. I don’t need to prove anything to anybody.
“I am happy in my own skin. As long as my kids have everything they need then that makes me happy.”