Mary Portas has revealed she was left homeless aged 19 after the death of her parents, following her revelation that her brother is the biological father of her son.

The retail expert fought back tears as she opened up about her unique family situation during an interview on Jamie Laing‘s Great Company podcast.

Mary, 65, joked her brother did not ‘s**g’ her now ex-wife Melanie Rickey but was instead the former couple’s sperm donor.

Now, during the same interview, Mary told how she was left homeless when she was just a teenager after her father’s wife sold their home.

‘My mother died when I was 16 and my father when I was 19,’ she heartbreakingly began to say.

‘My father, when he remarried, he didn’t change his will and he died nine months after marrying this woman and so, she took our family home.

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Mary Portas has revealed she was left homeless aged 19 after the death of her parents, following her announcement that her brother is the biological father of her son

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Mary told how she was left homeless when she was just a teenager after her father’s wife sold their home

‘We were sort of homeless. When you lose your home, you don’t have anywhere to go on a Sunday for lunch or you don’t have “oh I’m just gonna go back and see mum”.’

Mary continued: ‘You don’t just lose your parents, you lose the social infrastructure.

‘I got into Rada and I wanted to act, but I couldn’t go because of me being at home and looking after my brother, but I thought if I leave and go and live in some little place in London, what’s going to happen to him?’

Mary added how her father moved in with her stepmother when they married but kept our family home and would leave money for Mary to get food shopping for her and her brother.

Meanwhile, speaking about her brother, Mary said that because she shares a close bond with her brother and knew that he ‘didn’t particularly want to have children’ she asked him to be their donor.

‘He looked after me. It was a real symbiosis,’ she said.

‘And Lawrence turned up to the old donor place and said, “Done it, sis!”.’

Mary’s ex-wife Melanie carried Horatio who was born in 2012, with the TV star saying he is the ‘image’ of her side of the family.

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Mary, 65, joked her brother did not ‘s**g’ her now ex-wife Melanie Rickey (pictured) but was instead the former couple’s sperm donor

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The retail expert fought back tears as she opened up about her unique family situation during an interview on Jamie Laing’s Great Company podcast

‘Lawrence lives abroad now, but he rings us regularly and they talk about football. God, it’s so boring!’ she said.

Mary became emotional as she recalled the sweet moment when Lawrence held Horatio for the first time.

‘The most beautiful time is when, you know, he came into the world and I rang Lawrence and Lawrence turned up and picked him up.

‘And it was like, it was his gift to me. God, I get emotional. It was his gift. And it was the greatest gift,’ she said.

Mary’s maiden name is Newton. She changed her surname after marrying her now ex-husband Graham Portas in 1990.

The former couple, who divorced in 2003, are parents to Mylo, 31, and Verity, 29.

She became a lesbian only in her 40s, when she met Melanie and fell for her.