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From cleaner to millionaire's wife!

When Jade Brock left school with just one GCSE, she found a job as a cleaner and had trouble making ends meet.

But now Jade’s engaged to millionaire Andrew Paul, 39, who she met while dusting his home, and is planning a lavish wedding most girls can only dream of – and she’s three months pregnant.

Speaking from their £1.1million country pile, Jade, now 21, can’t help but appear a little smug as she describes her rise from rags to riches.

Glancing at her £6,000 diamond engagement ring, she says: “I now have a lifestyle I only ever dreamt about. But that’s not why I’m happy. I’m happy because I’m marrying the love of my life.”

Jade left school in 2004 with just one C at GCSE. “I wasn’t very academic,” admits Jade, with her feet propped up on the £8,000 coffee table she once had to clean.

Thankfully, her mum Caroline gave her an £8.50-an-hour job at her cleaning company, and just after Christmas 2006 Andrew got in touch, because he needed a cleaner for his five-bedroomed mansion in Ightam, Kent.

Jade recalls: “I was gobsmacked when I arrived – it was fitted with a £30,000 cinema! Mr Paul was a nice-looking older guy but, as I’d only just turned 19, I didn’t think anything of it.”

For two years, Jade regularly cleaned the city trader’s mansion before going home, where she lived with her dad Dave, 60, and her youngest sister. Jade’s parents split in 2002, and there wasn’t enough room in her mum’s two-bedroom flat for them and her middle sister.

Jade says: “Andrew was away in London quite a bit on business, so I didn’t see him every week. But when I did we’d always flirt. He’d joke about how good I looked in my cleaning uniform, making me blush. I never thought he meant it though. I used to tease him about the animal-print curtains in his bedroom, and tell him off for putting fairy liquid in the dishwasher when he ran out of tablets.

“I was only earning about £700 a month cleaning, but I was living at home, so it was enough to survive on. If I ever needed any clothes I’d go to Primark to find a bargain.”

But in September 2008, having turned 21, Jade decided to quit cleaning to become a dancer.

She says: “A week after I left, Andrew called and asked me out for dinner that night. There’d always been a bit of a spark between us, but I never imagined anything would come of it.

“But I thought, ‘Sod it!’ and drove straight over to his house in my Peugeot. 

“He got out a bottle of red wine and said I was gorgeous. He made me feel special and we had such a lovely evening, I ended up staying the night. He was a gentleman and I knew it wouldn’t just be a one-night stand.”

The couple soon became an item.

“He’d book us into five-star hotels and take me out on his £30,000 Mustang or his £130,000 motor-cruiser,” says Jade. “I felt like I was starring in a movie.

“We’d talk about him working in the city, and my dreams to set up a dance school.”

Jade adds: “On our first Christmas together I used my savings to buy a £200 camera for Andrew and was excited about giving it to him. But when we exchanged gifts, his just kept coming. The first was a diamond-encrusted platinum commitment ring, then a pair of £100 Ugg boots, a £60 bottle of Chanel perfume, a £150 Nintendo DS, a phone and pair of designer trainers.

“I felt so embarrassed, but he seemed so chuffed with his little camera that I realised he was special.”

Jade says the 18-year age gap has never been an issue. She says: “Andrew has younger friends and I have older ones, so we all get on well. My parents had no problem with his age because they could see how happy he made me and I get on really well with his parents too.”

And on a surprise trip to Monte Carlo to celebrate New Year’s Eve, Andrew, who’s been married twice before, proposed to Jade.

“When we returned home I moved into his house. We’d only been together three months but I knew he was The One,” says Jade, who now drives a £35,000 silver MG Jade and can afford to splash out on designer labels.

In April, the pair celebrated their engagement with a £3,000 party at an exclusive country club.

She says: “My friends don’t seem to be jealous, but I don’t flaunt our money in their faces. My worst nightmare would be to date a man my own age again. They just want to get drunk all the time, but me and Andrew stay in and watch TV.”

In May, Jade discovered she was pregnant.
She says: “I’m so excited. After the baby’s born I want to set up my dancing school and Andrew’s said he’ll invest.”

In the meantime, Jade has her big day to organise. She laughs: “I’m happy to dust and in exchange Andrew cooks. He’s said we can get a cleaner, but I don’t want one. We’re good at compromises and that’s one of the things that makes our relationship work.

“Andrew doesn’t want a prenuptial agreement because he trusts me and knows I’m not marrying him for his money.”

Andrew adds: “Jade’s always said she’s not interested in my money and I believe her. I can’t see us splitting up – we’re too in love.”

By Jocelyn Cook