Controversial Katie Hopkins Declared Bankrupt
Katie Hopkins, controversial media figure, once said that poor people in debt only had themselves to blame. So, is Katie Hopkins bankrupt? Although it’s not official, she is on the brink of declaring bankruptcy and has applied for an insolvency agreement to help her pay her debt. By the way, do you know the net worth of Katie Hopkins?
Image Source – Getty
Katie Hopkins’ bankrupt comes after she was ordered to pay damages to food writer Jack Monroe; who won a lawsuit against her in 2017.
Hopkins’ lawyers submitted an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) to the Insolvency Service. She aimed at helping her pay the outstanding costs of the court case involving Monroe.
An insolvency agreement refers to an application. Where the applicant will repay debt to creditors over a certain period of time, normally a few years. Hopkins also had to sell her home in Exeter due to her mounting debt.
Who is Katie Hopkins?
Katie Hopkins is a media personality and former businesswoman born in the UK.
The world addressed her as controversial commentator throughout her career. Hopkins was very straightforward and make quite a few controversial statements. And with that blessing, she landed in hot water more than once!
She once commented:
“To call yourself ‘plus size’ is just a euphemism for being fat. Life is much easier when you’re thinner. Big is not beautiful, of course a job comes down to how you look.”
She used to be a columnist at the Daily Mail and had her own radio show on LBC. Before this, she was also a columnist at ‘The Sun’, but didn’t seem very sympathetic as she referred to migrants as ‘cockroaches’, among others.
She also made appearances on The Apprentice and Celebrity Big Brother. As well as starring in If Hopkins Rules the World, a panel show she hosted in 2015.
Hopkins previously worked as a guest presenter for the LBC station and also appeared twice on Question Time and 10 O’Clock Live.
Publications like The Huffington Post, The Guardian and MTV labelled her a ‘professional troll’, while she labels herself as ‘Britain’s biggest b*tch’.
Cooking on a Budget
Jack Monroe is a British activist, journalist and food writer from Britain. She wrote a blog naming A Girl Called Jack, which was renamed later as – Cooking on a Bootstrap.
Monroe rise to fame as a blogger who shared recipes on a budget, as she had to feed her son for only £10 a week.
She has since written for publications such as The Guardian, The Huffington Post and Essex-based newspaper The New Yorker, where she was a weekly columnist back in 2012.
Monroe identifies as non-binary and came out in 2015, going by both ‘they’ and ‘she’ pronouns.
Why Jack Monroe Sued Hopkins
Back in 2015, Hopkins accused Monroe on Twitter of backing the defacement of war memorials by protestors. She asked Katie Hopkins to apologize and make a donation to charity, but she refused, mistaking her for columnist Laurie Penny.
The tweet read:
‘@MsJackMonroe scrawled on any memorials recently? Vandalized the memory of those who fought for your freedom. Grandma got any more medals?’..
Hopkins did delete her tweet, but replied with another tweet, saying:
“Can someone explain to me – in 10 words or less – the difference between irritant @PennyRed and social anthrax @MsJackMonroe.”
Monroe also testified that she had to endure abuse from other Twitter users, and even received death threats. She describes the 18-month lawsuit as a ‘devastating nightmare’.
Katie Hopkins had to experience a costly court case. She was also ordered to pay damages:
“I’m supposed to be jubilant and celebratory but I feel quite mixed up. Having been close to the edge of bankruptcy myself, it’s a hideous situation to be in, but it was completely avoidable. Things are in place in that agreement to make sure her children are looked after. I’m a mother myself and I read it line by line to make sure that her children didn’t suffer as a result of what she’s done.”
Katie Hopkins was Ordered to Pay Significant Damages
In 2017, Katie Hopkins was ordered to pay damages of £24,000 to Monroe, and even more in legal costs – totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds.
This has prompted Katie Hopkins to apply for an insolvency agreement to avoid being declared bankrupt.
Ironically, Monroe initially asked her to apologize and pay a donation of £5,000 to a migrants’ charity, or she’ll sue.
Well, she didn’t – and she did.
After the victory, Monroe said, “I’m going to get horribly drunk”. The judge found that Hopkins’ tweets did in fact cause harm to Monroe’s reputation, although they are not seen as ‘very serious’.
Katie Hopkins was refused permission to appeal in January and apart from the damages to Monroe, was ordered to pay an initial payment of £107 to Monroe’s lawyers. Since both parties’ lawyers worked on a no-win no-fee basis, Hopkins doesn’t have to pay her own lawyers.
Monroe’s lawyer said that Katie Hopkins has to compensate a six-figure sum out of her own pocket, because of her actions. He said that tweets like these should be deleted immediately and the person should apologize, but instead, Hopkins chose not to and this turned out to cost her dearly.
A Collapsing Career
Since this court case began, Katie Hopkins had a few setbacks in her career.
She was dropped from her LBC radio show after she tweeted that a ‘final solution’ must be found by the UK, referring to the bomb that was detonated at a Manchester arena during an Ariana Grande concert.
She should have known that the term ‘final solution’ was also used widely by the Nazis. It didn’t work out very well for her.
But that’s not all – Katie Hopkins was also dropped from her job as a columnist at the Daily Mail. This came after a speech she delivered in America, claiming that Britain was in the grip of a ‘Muslim mafia’.
Before this, she was a columnist for The Sun. But left in 2015 after she wrote a column where she compared migrants to cockroaches and said the they ‘spread like the norovirus’.
Hopkins has been the subject of many Twitter trends. She continues to make controversial statements and sharing her point of view on many headlines.
