I’m 29 & going to be a millionaire after businessman Barrie Drewitt-Barlow gave me £1.6m to open my own restaurant
A SINGLE mum who struggled to keep up with bills has revealed how her life has changed significantly after appearing on Rich House Poor House.
Ocean Chapman, 29, and 10-year-old daughter Oziana starred on the Channel 5 show and swapped lives with wealthy entrepreneur Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, who is worth nearly £200m.
Following the episode airing, Barrie has pledged to help Ocean leave her Essex council flat and to “become a millionaire” herself through a new business venture.
Initially he had said he’d put £250,000 into a baby food business, but instead they are now opening a pub together in Braintree, Essex – and it’s in her name.
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous, Ocean revealed: “Barrie has bought the freehold for the building named ‘Ocean’s Braintree’.
“I will be a business partner and the executive chef.
“I will be there day to day to make sure all my food is going out to a high standard and will be creating and testing new food ideas with the other chefs.
“This has changed my life so much already.”
The pub will aim to serve the “superior quality of a traditional Pan Asian restaurant, with a fusion of the Caribbean”, and will also cater private events.
On the TV show, barmaid Ocean revealed how she usually scrapes by on just £59 a week, so she’s hoping the new business will change her and her daughter’s life dramatically.
The mum broke down in tears when Barrie pledged to invest £250,000 in her on the show, and she can’t believe that Barrie has increased this total by a staggering amount.
Barrie told Fabulous: “My initial pledge to Ocean was a £250,000 investment into a business, we have just paid over £600,000 for the building and we will spend another £1million on the refurb so we are going all out to make it something special for the area and to help generate more interest in the local area.”
Speaking of the businessman’s generosity, Ocean said: “Once this opens I will be on my way to be a millionaire myself.
“Which then I hope one day I can change someone’s life the way my life has been changed.
“I’m on the road to great success and financial freedom.
“Life is so much better now and so much more exciting, I actually feel like a real adult now.
“Before the show I struggled to pay for so many things, doing a simple food shop before was a struggle, also taking my daughter out on weekends was near impossible.”
Ocean’s Braintree is currently undergoing the renovation process needed to open, and the mum said they have been inspired by the success of celeb hotspot Sheesh in Chigwell but “like to make our own statement.”
Barrie added: “Sheesh is one of the places I love to escape to with friends on a night out, I don’t think anyone could compete with them.
“That’s not the aim, we want to bring something to Braintree that currently does not exist.”
My initial pledge to Ocean was a £250,000 investment into a business, we have just paid over £600,000 for the building and we will spend another £1million on the refurb
Barrie Drewitt-Barlow
Barrie and ex-husband Tony were Britain’s first gay dads, fathering a twin boy and girl through surrogacy, and have made their fortune from various business ventures including a trans-Atlantic surrogacy business and a global medical research company.
The couple split in 2019, after Barrie confirmed he had fallen for daughter Saffron’s ex Scott, and they now have two kids, Valentina and Romeo.
With his new business venture, Barrie hopes to offer something different for pubgoers.
He explained: “Although the business has been trading as a pub since the early 1700s, it is clear that the old fashioned ‘pubs’ are dying up and down the country.
“This is not the plan for the place any longer.
Once this opens I will be on my way to be a millionaire myself
Ocean Chapman
“The plan is not to trade as a traditional pub but to have this as a destination venue that offers high-end meals for celebrations.
“Not only will the venue offer dining on the lower floors, but will also offer private and VIP dining on the upper floors, and we have plans to convert the derelict barns attached to the main building, to offer a wedding venue and function rooms with a court-yard area for overspill.”
The single mum opened up about her name being on the pub, and said she “loves the idea.”
She added: “When I asked Barrie about my name there he said ‘why are you asking me, it’s your business.’
“He keeps reminding me that this is all me and what I want to do will be fulfilled.”
Who are Tony and Barrie Drewitt-Barlow?
BARRIE Drewitt-Barlow and ex-husband Tony were Britain's first gay dads, fathering a twin boy and girl through surrogacy.
The couple met in 1987 when Tony stopped at a petrol station in Manchester to ask for directions.
At the time, Tony had won the runner up prize in the the New Scientist of the year award.
The pair went to court to be allowed to have same-sex parents on the birth certificates as “parent one” and “parent two” instead of “mother and father”. It was a historic case for the LGBTQ community.
Saffron and Aspen were conceived using the donor eggs of one woman, Tracie McCune, and were then carried in the womb of another woman, Rosalind Bellany.
Although Barrie and Tony each fathered a child, they have never revealed which dad is the biological father of which twin as they want to be equal parents.
They have made their money from various business ventures including a trans-Atlantic surrogacy business and a global medical research company. They also earn cash from real estate.
The couple split in 2019, after Barrie confirmed he had fallen for daughter Saffron’s ex Scott.
Barrie shared how he is firmly committed to helping Ocean have a new life for herself.
He added: “If someone had given me a helping hand at her age and given me the same type of funding to start a business, then I would have worked all the hours god sent to make it work and change my life.
“I don’t see any reason why she cannot do the same.
“As I have said in the past, I want to help her get to her dreams of running her own business and making a good living for her and her daughter.
“This could be the way to get to it.
“She has proven to me that she is determined and hard working with the right ethics to want to succeed, I am going to do everything I can to help her get there.”
On RHPH, the single mum got to experience Barrie’s life of luxury, staying in his six-bedroom mansion with a private chef and a chauffeured Rolls Royce, and the wealthy businessman lived as Ocean for five days.
Ocean and Barrie have grown so close after filming that when he comes over to the UK for a two-week visit, she will see him around three times.
Ocean, who says strangers now recognise her in the street after doing RHPH, previously revealed: “I speak to him all the time, he invites me and my daughter round for lunches and dinners.
“When he is over in the UK, when he is over here, in the two weeks he’s here, we see him two or three times, go round his for Sunday dinners as they always have a big family Sunday dinner.
“He always sends a car to come and pick me and my daughter up.
“All the big parties he does he always invites me, it’s really nice, we’ve built a really nice friendship.”
Barrie and Ocean are also hoping to launch a sex toy company together called The Spot, and said they are “expecting our first batch of toys to arrive in the country by the end of the month.”