‘I have a mortgage to pay like everyone else!’ Brenda Edwards returned to accounts job in pandemic

Brenda Edwards has revealed she returned to her old job in accounts during the coronavirus pandemic because she has a ‘mortgage to pay like everybody else’.

The Loose Women star, 53, claimed she also revisited her former career during her 2016 battle with breast cancer as she’s not too ‘proud’ and ‘needed to work’.

Before she found fame from reaching fourth place in The X Factor‘s second series in 2005, Brenda enjoyed a ‘very successful’ career as an accounts payable manager.

During an appearance on Saturday Night With Hayley Palmer, she told the presenter: ‘I was an accounts payable manager for 25 years, very successful, and I will go back and do it again if my career…’

When a surprised Hayley asked, ‘Would you?’ Brenda replied, ‘Yes, I have done. I did it in the pandemic and I did it when I was going through my breast cancer because I needed to work.’

Brenda – who has been a panellist on Loose Women since 2019 – added: ‘Yeah, I’m not proud. I’ve got a mortgage to pay like everybody else.’

Explaining the role, she said: ‘It just takes some savvy. An accounts payable manager, basically if we’re staying in a hotel for example, you’ve got a beautiful hotel, but you’ve got to pay for the fixtures, the utilities, the people delivering this and that.

‘It was my job to pay and keep them in check and I was very good at it, yeah, and I will go back into it tomorrow. It’s like riding a bike, you never forget.’

Last year, Brenda revealed she once broke down on stage during a production of Hairspray after learning she had Stage Three breast cancer.

The singer, who has been cancer-free for six years as of 2022, spoke about the heartbreaking moment her co-stars all began to cry while singing I Know Where I’ve Been one night.

Appearing as a guest on Martin and Roman’s Weekend Best, Brenda explained why that particular song is so ‘poignant’ for her. 

‘When I was doing the show in 2016 that’s when I was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer and I did the show and I sang that song,’ she said.

‘It’s like “There’s a road we’ve been travelling, lost so many on the way” and those words came up and the cast all started crying.

‘Tracy Turnblade, she was holding my hands with tears and I was like: “Babe I can’t sing and cry, you need to stop this, please stop it”.

‘The key change, there was no singing whatsoever because I was just in tears, the first four five rows they’re in tears and I’m sure they were like “wow this is really good acting” because nobody knew, I hadn’t said anything about it.’

The crowd, who at the time were not aware of her diagnosis, gave her a standing ovation.

Saturday Night With Hayley Palmer airs weekly at 9pm on Spotlight TV.