It's been a 'tough few years' for the former TOWIE star
It’s been two years since we last saw him on TOWIE – and four years since he was a full-time cast member – but Tommy Mallet has been a busy boy since leaving the ITVBe show.
Not only has he got married to Georgia Kousoulou and become dad to three-year-old son Brody and three-month-old daughter Gigi, but Tommy was – until recently – the boss of multi-million-pound trainer business Mallet and even appeared on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.
However, Tommy stepped down from the business in October 2023 and was forced to ‘sell everything’ after receiving a huge tax bill. Now, after setting up his new business CTRNE, the former reality star has revealed he’s ‘going back to his roots’ after a ‘tough few years’.
Believe it or not, but Mallet isn’t actually Tommy’s real last name. He was actually born as Tommy Fordham but adopted the name Mallet – a nickname given to him by his grandmother – when he rose to fame on TOWIE in 2014. Now, Tommy has decided to go back to using his real name.
Explaining his decision on Instagram, Tommy wrote, ‘When I started on The Only Way is Essex in 2014, I chose the name Tommy Mallet as a nickname to protect my family’s name in case things didn’t work out.’
He continued, ‘The nickname Mallet was actually given to me by my late Irish grandmother, Angie. She used to call me ‘Mallet’ because I had a big head and a small body – it was her loving way of teasing me.
‘But after a tough few years, I’ve realised it’s time to cleanse the energy attached to that name. It’s come with its share of challenges and I’m ready to move forward with a fresh start.
‘I’m reclaiming my energy and embracing who I truly am by returning to the name I was born with: Tommy Fordham.’
Tommy has previously opened up about his business woes, admitting he has ‘nothing financially’ after being forced to ‘start from scratch’ following a ‘four-month struggle’.
‘I've sold all my assets to defend myself and starting from scratch, but I've got some wonderful companies and I will give it my all to get it back so my family can continue living the life I worked so hard to give them,’ he wrote on Instagram.
