The drama around Made in Chelsea is honestly never-ending and recently it seems to be focusing on the cast members' pay - or lack thereof.
In a raw chat with with MIC legend Louise Thompson – who famously joined the series as Jamie Laing's love interest, but became well known for her relationship with Spencer Matthews in the early seasons – on Elizabeth Day's How To Fail podcast, Louise came for the reality series for paying them just £25 a day when she first signed on.
She revealed, "At the beginning it was £25 a day, then it went up to £50 after one series, and then after a while I was paid £200 a day and that was capped at that – that was the absolute max."
Glamour? We think not.
In 2023, former MIC star Stevie Johnson was chatting on the Fearless Adventures podcast and commented on the SW3 lot and their not so SW3 salary...
Talking about his time on the show, Stevie mentioned the struggles of NOT being paid when he began his reality TV career, "When I first joined the show, I basically, you don’t get paid anything."
The now highly successful marketing mogul continued, "I used to have weeks where I wouldn’t film, and I wouldn’t get paid and it was like, have I made the right choice?"
Stevie was part of the show for three years but left after season nine, back in 2015. The former reality TV star then admitted that he struggled to find a suitable career that wasn't on the telly, "I can’t go back to finance. Whilst being on TV opened a lot of doors it also shut a few."
Married at First Sight Australia's Ella May Ding – who briefly appears on the show during a fling with Miles Nazaire – has also spoken about wages on the show.
Miles and Ella both boast successful podcasts and huge social media followings which have collectively created something even more heated and awkward that what was shown on our screens.
Naturally their relationship sparked a fair few opinions online leading both Ella and Miles to share their thoughts on the summer fling, as well as each other, on their platforms.
A LOT was said, although Ella gets an extra special prize from heatworld for spilling some MAJOR MIC behind-the-scenes secrets on the most recent episode of Sit With Us (which has been mysteriously taken down from Apple Music).
On an episode of Miles's podcast, Playtime – which he hosts with Love Island 2022 star Charlie Radnedge – the MIC star took aim at Ella, criticising her for "pettily" coming for the E4 show (as well as him, obvs) – allegedly spilling top show secrets and talking about cast salaries since her episodes aired.
Miles said, "There's a lot of things like, you know, being petty, like, 'Oh, they don't even get paid well... Our ratings are way better than their's...' Slagging off the show. One thing I didn't like – don't get me wrong, we all have problems with [Made In] Chelsea sometimes, but the fact that you are giving away the ins and outs of the secrets of the show, and kind of like saying, 'this is what happens... this may be not true' and all this kind of stuff, it's like, 'Woah, what are you doing?' You've come on the show, they've respected you, let's not do all that."
Shots fired. Actually, at this point they're barely taking five to reload.
And if you're wondering whether Ella will ever be returning to the show to confront Miles face-to-face, don't bother. Ella has made it clear that she is done with the show and will never return; which is literally the best way to get every single MIC fan to petition to get you ceremoniously back on.
Well played, queen.
Even if the cast are paid tuppence, let's face it, they don't exactly need the money, do they? This cast is known for having a lot of dough through family money and their various business ventures and also makes LOTS of dollar from Instagram – thanks to the platform built by the show. So don't feel too bad for them.
In 2021, with the help of thinkmoney, we generated a list of the top ten Instagram earners from the show and you may be surprised by who's made the cut and who hasn't...