Golden Balls star who lost 100k in iconic 'split or steal' reveals he's now in thousands of debt

The bloke who was brutally ‘stolen’ from on ITV game show Golden Balls has revealed he’s thousands of pounds in debt, years after his appearance on the show.

Stephen Bushnall, 50, was a contestant on the show 15-years ago, but still finds clips of the moment he was deceived by his fellow contestant Sarah going viral on a pretty regular basis.

For those unfamiliar with the game, in the final part, the two remaining contestants were given two golden balls each, one with the word ‘split’ and one with the word ‘steal’. If both contestants chose the split ball - happy days, they go home with half of the prize money each; if they both chose to steal, they’d both leave with nothing; and if one stole and one split, the ‘stealer’ would get all the prize leaving the other with sweet FA.

In this episode, business development manager Stephen had played an honest game and was keen to split the £100,000 prize 50/50 with Sarah - but she’d clearly decided that she wasn’t happy with £50,000 and opted to steal the lot from the poor bloke. Ouch.

ITV

Stephen, from Hartlepool, recently spoke to the Daily Mail, where he admitted to being in around £20,000 worth of debt and that winning the £50,000 back then would have been ‘life changing’.

He said: “Like a lot of people, I am struggling. Life is tough.

“I was absolutely devastated when it happened. I was in a state of pure shock and broke down in tears.

“It would have been amazing. It would have sorted out a lot of problems and I played the game fairly.

“And right now I am £20,000 in debt through owed money and credit card bills. The cost of living crisis has been very tough.”

ITV

Despite losing out, Stephen said he would still choose to share the money as that’s just the type of fella he is. Ah, bless him.

“I could not have lived with myself if I had stolen all that money from someone,” he added. “It is not who I am.

“And now, even though I lost all of it, if I went back on I would share. Regardless of the financial situation I am in and what happened.”

Stephen went on to say that he hasn’t seen or spoken to Sarah since they appeared on the show, but says he has ‘no hard feelings’.

You’re a better person than me, Stephen, I’ll tell you that.