TV PRESENTER Gail Porter has called for schoolchildren to be taught how to manage money to stop them falling into debt like her.

The 46-year-old former host of Top of the Pops was declared bankrupt earlier this year after being left penniless.

She said she was “embarrassed” to tell anyone of her troubles, so forced herself to spend several nights on a park bench in North London.

Porter, who was born in Edinburgh, told how she had never received any advice on how to handle money and is campaigning for it to become part of the school curriculum.

She said: “I definitely, definitely think there should be something in schools. It would just help.

“When I left school and went into further education suddenly you have got bills and you don’t get taught anything about that at school.

“It’s important. It’s great to do English and drama and all these wonderful things that we did at school, but when it comes to paying bills or putting money aside I didn’t have a clue.

“I was working at B&Q and I would come home and think ‘Oh my God I’ve made £3.50 an hour’ and I would just spend it and not think I should maybe save it. We didn’t really talk about money much at home.”

Porter has struggled financially since 2007, and admitted that she was left without a roof over her head three years ago. She lost her hair to alopecia, which she blames for damaging her career.

The mother-of-one’s bankruptcy was confirmed in January after she owed a six-figure sum in tax arrears and could not pay her electricity and gas bills. She is now working as an ambassador for insolvency firm Creditfix, which helped her through her money woes.

She told how she hit rock bottom earlier this year when a bailiff arrived at her rented flat to seize her belongings to pay off her debts.

She said: “I used to put my bills under the bed and pay whatever I could. A really big moment for me was when I got a phone call from a bailiff.

“I knew I owed money, but I don’t have credit cards and I’m not a big spender. It was just a case of my bills getting out of control.

“At the time, I was struggling to get work and I’d even said to a few friends, I’ll come and work in your office and they laughed it off but I was serious.

“At this point, I was desperate and just wanted to start earning money.

“One of the worst things was that each time I couldn’t pay a bill, they’d add on a fee. I used to think, well if I can’t afford the first bill, how am I supposed to pay a more expensive one?”

Porter, who has a teenage daughter, has said she now gets by on just £200 a month after her rent is paid.

She has also battled depression and an eating disorder, and her marriage to Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave ended in divorce.

It is far cry from when her naked image was projected on to the Houses of Parliament.

Porter starred in the TV programme Celebrity Big Brother in 2015, although she described the experience as “worse than being sectioned”.