A BBC presenter opened up about the "horrific" experience he faced after being left in £20,000 debt.

A BBC presenter has revealed he was stuck in £20,000 debt, as he opened up on the “vicious cycle” he was left in.

Kevin Duala appeared on BBC Morning Live on Tuesday, April 21, where he shared tips for viewers going through the same horrific experience after his own struggles.

The TV and radio presenter, who has fronted the likes of Health: Truth or Scare, A Matter of Life & Debt, and various segments for The One Show, admitted he was left “ashamed” and “embarrassed” but urged others to speak up about their debt to avoid going through what he did and break down the stigma over money troubles.

Kevin revealed he had been left in debt of up to £20,000, as he spoke to Morning Live presenters Helen Skelton and Rav Wilding.

He began: “I’d like to take you back 25 years when my journey into debt first started. I was self employed, 15% of the UK population now are self employed, so it’s going to affect a lot of people.”

He continued: “It was my first job, I was new to the game, I’d started in our industry that we’re in now, and once I first got that pay cheque, I just thought, ‘Right, that money’s mine’. I wasn’t educated enough to find out what I needed to do, however, I did source that information out, and I did make my pot, I put my tax in one pot, my mortgage, my house bills, and then I had my cash flow here, thinking that this was the way it would be now, that I’d carry on working and I would float about and enjoy life.

“But that wasn’t the case. Work wasn’t forthcoming straight away, but obviously, my mortgage needed to be paid.”

Kevin went on to explain that he needed a loan to top up his tax pot, saying: “Little bits of work were coming in but not enough to balance the books.”

He added: “When it started to get really serious was when I then had to pay the loan back but I didn’t have enough money in my cash flow to do that.”

Kevin maxed out on his overdrafts, and said he ended up in a “horrible vicious circle, robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

At first, he tried to ignore his troubles, saying he “buried my head in the sand,” but his problems didn’t go away.

Kevin continued by saying he felt “lonely, isolated,” and didn’t want to tell anyone. “It was embarrassing, I felt ashamed. I was a grown man, I had a family, we were bringing our kids up, I had bills to pay, the pressure started to mount.

“It’s horrible when you go through that situation because you can’t tell anyone, or don’t want to tell anyone. You feel embarrassed, and that’s the thing you should do, you should open up and tell, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“The pressure mounted, it affected my mental health, it affected me personally, my appearance. I didn’t want to go out, I felt embarrassed. The industry we’re in, our job is to go out and pretend everything is ok, I just couldn’t do that.

“I remember going for an audition and just thought to myself, ‘If I get this job, I’ll be able to balance all the books, I’ll be back in the game, no one needs to know, I can hide it all’. I went for the job, didn’t get it, came back and I was just lost, I just thought, ‘What am I going to do?’ Honestly, I was in a dark place.”

Kevin recalled his “turning point” came one day when he tried to get money out from a cashpoint but it took his card. “That’s when I knew then, I had no money, I had no access to money, so I went home and I just thought, ‘What am I going to do?’”

He went on: “I remember going into the bedroom, lying on the bed and just felt physically sick. I started crying, not out of pity but out of annoyance that I’d got myself in that situation.

“I couldn’t wait for the morning to arrive, I got up and phoned CBA and they put me in touch with a debt charity and my life changed from then, they were absolutely brilliant.”

Kevin urged for others in the same situation that he once faced to also seek help, saying: “I finally got there and that took me six years.”

As host Helen asked Kevin how much debt he was stuck in, the radio star replied: “Up to £20,000 I was in debt.”

“I urge anyone, if they are struggling with debt, to take that first step,” he added.

Morning Live airs from 9.30am on BBC One and iPlayer.