Northern Ireland

Stephen Nolan's finances always attract much interest and speculation

Stephen Nolan is Northern Ireland’s highest-paid broadcaster
Stephen Nolan is Northern Ireland’s highest-paid broadcaster
By Suzanne McGonagle

As Northern Ireland’s highest-paid broadcaster, Stephen Nolan’s salary and financial activity always attracts much interest and speculation.

The most recent figures published by the corporation last year revealed that the Belfast-born presenter earned between £415,000 and £419,999 in 2021/22.

In the previous year, the Radio Ulster and Radio 5 Live host earned between £405,000 and £409,999.

His salary for presenting shows on BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC One NI made him at the time the fifth best paid on-air star for the corporation behind Gary Lineker, Zoe Ball, Alan Shearer and Steve Wright.

Aside from the shows he presents, he has also reaped the financial rewards from programmes commissioned through his independent production company, Third Street Studios.

Just last month the Belfast Telegraph reported that the company had seen a rise in assets to £4 million.

Accounts revealed that total assets in Third Street Studios grew by 5.5 per cent over the 15 months ending March 29, 2022.

Read more:

  • Who is Stephen Nolan?
  • Stephen Nolan among the BBC's top five biggest earners
  • Twitter troll to pay six-figure sum to TV and radio star Stephen Nolan
  • BBC probe finds Stephen Nolan's treatment of SDLP MLA was 'justifiable' but party's boycott will continue

Set up in 2014, Third Street Studios has produced TV and radio shows for the BBC such as Feed Yourself Fitter with Stephen Nolan, Made in NI, The Top Table, The Shankill Bomb and My First Home.

He is also sole director of Stephen Nolan Broadcasting, which saw its assets rise from £13,564 to £73,010 in the 12 months to August 31 2022.

Accounts published at the end of May reveal shareholder funds in Stephen Nolan Broadcasting rose from £11,664 to £59,931 over the same period.

But Nolan has also been dealt blows to his wealth in previous years, including during the 2008 property market crash when he lost life savings of around £200,000.

In March 2020, he also revealed he had lost a large amount of money in the 2019 Flybe takeover.

Speaking on his Radio Ulster show at the time during a discussion on the collapse of the airline, Nolan said he had been a shareholder in the company until its takeover in 2019.

"I was a shareholder in Flybe, I lost money last year, I lost quite a lot of money,"  he said.

In 2016, he also revealed how a fraudster was able to steal £140,000 from his bank account through a series of fake cheques.

It was the second major instance of fraud against him after it emerged in 2014 that Nolan and TV presenter Eamonn Holmes had been defrauded by west Belfast man Jay Cartmill.

Cartmill received a two-year suspended jail sentence after admitting he had illegally accessed a credit card issued to Nolan on 42 separate occasions, to steal almost £18,000.

He also said he had attempted to take £30,000 from an account belonging to a company run by Holmes.

Nolan also explained how a man from Birmingham had recreated cheques and forged his signature in an enterprise worth £140,000.

"The signature on the cheques was nothing like mine, it was a complete scribble," he said.

"He wiped me my account out for something like £140,000," he told listeners.

The BBC presenter successfully sued two people for making false and defamatory allegations about him on social media
The BBC presenter successfully sued two people for making false and defamatory allegations about him on social media

In recent years Nolan also successfully sued two people for making false and defamatory allegations about him on social media, for a six-figure and five-figure sum.

Originally from the Ballysillan area of north Belfast, Nolan now lives in a luxury pad close to Strangford Lough in Co Down.

He has previously spoken about how he knows he is "lucky I've got such a nice home" and has also defended the salary he receives, but said he “would not be as arrogant to say what I am worth”.

Previously an owner of a Range Rover and a Mercedes, just recently he appears to have switched high-end cars for a more affordable vehicle.

Posting a photograph on Twitter of his beloved mum Audrey in his new Skoda, he later hit back at criticism that he had "gone down" due to his new car choice.

"I laugh my head off at comments like yours...' gone down' because I’ve bought a brand of car that is cheaper," he said on Twitter

"I am lucky enough to be able to buy most brands, but my choice was determined on comfort and value – and not a pecking order of prestige.

"I feel no need to impress."