Rachel Riley shot to fame in 2008 when after encouragement from her mum, she applied to take over Carol Vorderman's TV presenting role on popular daytime show Countdown, despite having no previous television experience. Having successfully secured the job at the tender age of 22, Rachel has now been presenting the popular Channel 4 programme for ten years. During this time, the TV personality has taken part Strictly Come Dancing in 2013, where she met her now-boyfriend, professional dancer Pasha Kovalev. The couple have been happily dating ever since, and recently got back from a romantic break away to the Maldives. Other TV credentials include 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, The Gadget Show and Sky Sports' Friday Night Football.
What is Rachel Riley's net worth?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Rachel is worth an estimated £3.7million. She started earning money at the age of 15 at a café every Saturday, where she took away a very modest £25 wage. After graduating from Oriel College, Oxford, with a 2:1 maths degree, she went on to work as an analyst for price comparison website TotallyMoney.com, earning £25,000. However, she left just after a few months into her role after successfully beating thousands of applicants to become the new presenter of Countdown. Rachel has previously spoken out about her salary on the show, admitting that it "was a lot less than people thought". In an interview with Telegraph in 2015, she explained that her starting salary was "more than I was earning at the website, but far less than the speculation [of £100,000]." Following her divorce from ex-husband James Gilbert, meanwhile, Rachel purchased her own house in West London, which is worth £600,000.
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Rachel Riley is worth an estimated £3.7million
From student to TV star
Rachel has opened up in the past about how her life dramatically changed after having just graduated, she suddenly become a TV personality. Opening up about getting used to the extravagant perks of the job, including her annual £10,000 clothes budget, she told Telegraph: "I'd just come out of university. My clothes were mostly from the sales, and I lived in sports gear. Then I got a £10,000-a-year clothes budget from Countdown." "It felt like that scene out of Pretty Woman where she has all those bags. It was very different, very alien – and a lot of fun," she added. Rachel has also admitted that her budget has since gone up to £14,000. "It's a huge perk. It's for my clothes that I wear on the series – we do about 224 episodes a year. If anything gets retired, we give it to charity," she said.
Strictly Come Dancing
In 2013, Rachel 's profile expanded when she took part in the eleventh series of Strictly Come Dancing. The star was paired with professional dance partner Pasha Kovalev, who she fell in love with. The pair went on to get eliminated in week six after losing out in the dance-off against Abbey Clancy and Alijaz Skorjanec. At the time, Rachel was in her first year of marriage to high school sweetheart Jamie Gilbert; the couple announced their split soon after her appearance on the dancing show. The TV star has since gone on to confess that she remains "good friends" with her ex James. Rachel has also spoken out about the much talked about "Strictly curse" during an interview with Telegraph, revealing that she thinks it "serves as a magnifying glass that shows up pre-existing fault lines".
Rachel fell in love with Pasha Kovalev on Strictly Come Dancing
Relationship with Pasha Kovalev
Rachel and Pasha have been in a relationship for over three years since meeting on Strictly, and are often asked about their future plans together. Recently, Rachel confessed that having children was not "on her radar" at the moment. Talking to Mail on Sunday's Event magazine, she said: "All my friends are getting pregnant at the moment. That's good for them, but it's currently not on my radar. I don't know about the future." Marriage is also not on the cards for the happy couple at the moment, simply because they don't feel the need to prove their love for one another. Rachel told the Express when quizzed on their romance: "I don't feel I have to get married. I don't think I need that pressure any more. And I am perfectly happy. I don't worry about getting married or whether he is taking a long time in the morning, or whether he has done the dishes," she continued. "That does not really bother me in the long term. I feel settled."
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When it comes to sorting out the finances in their relationship, Rachel has previously admitted that she is the one in control. "Pasha doesn’t do any of the finances! I’m the savvy shopper – I make spreadsheets to track what we spend," she told Love Money. "I think in relationships that one person should take the lead when it comes to finance. Otherwise, you’ve got two people doing different things – they don’t know what the other person’s doing."
Pasha with Rachel on Countdown
How Rachel manages to save her money
Rachel has admitted that she is both a spender and a saver, but uses a few useful websites to help her save her money. Talking to the Telegraph, she said that she likes to think that she is a "savvy shopper." "If I need something, I’ll use websites like Topcashback.co.uk and moneysavingexpert to see if there’s a voucher," she said. "We have Martin Lewis [MoneySavingExpert] on Countdown quite a lot and he’s always talking about ways of saving money and getting cashback. If it’s available, then why not?" Rachel also understands the importance of money, and puts this down to her first Saturday job as a teenager. Chatting to Love Money, she said: "You know how much time and effort you had to put in to earn that. If I went out, I wouldn’t take a taxi home at the end of the night because that’s most of my money and I don’t want to spend it."