Sir Richard Branson opened up about his frugal habits on Thursday's This Morning, admitting he hates the word "billionaire", despite being worth an estimated $2.5billion.
The Virgin mogul, 73, appeared on the ITV chat show with hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley, where they ended the interview with a series of quick fire every day questions to see how a "billionaire" responds.
One of the questions was: "Do you ever check your own bank balance?" to which Richard replied: "No!", he explained: "I'm always borrowing money to do the next project, so there wouldn't be any money in there and I'm not officially a billionaire anyway!" The next question was: "Have you ever thought, that's too expensive?"
Richard responded: "Oh yes, all the time, I don't like wasting money on expensive things" host Ben then asked: "So you don't waste money, you're quite frugal?" to which Richard explained: "Yeah, I'll turn off lights, I'm frugal, I started with nothing and I appreciate having created some things but I never created them for the money, I just love creating.
"One of the worst words I hate is the word billionaire because I think you are what you are, you create things, what you're worth is not how you should be labelled in my opinion." It comes as Virgin Atlantic named a plane in honour of founder Richard to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its first flight last month.
The airline announced its new Airbus A330neo aircraft has been named Ruby Rebel and has the registration G-VSRB. The carrier said artwork depicting a woman on the jet’s nose is "inspired by Sir Richard and the rebellious spirit that’s always driven Virgin Atlantic to do things differently".
Virgin Atlantic’s first flight operated from London Gatwick to New York on June 22 1984. Richard said at the time: "When starting Virgin Atlantic, I went against everyone’s advice – and on paper they were right. They knew we’d be a tiny airline against much bigger players.
"But my attitude is that if you can create something that’s better than what everybody else is offering, then you have a chance of succeeding. Virgin Atlantic was created to provide a bright red, fun, friendly, fabulous choice that made flying better for everyone.
"We worked out in 1984 all the things we could do differently, from our planes, our clubhouses, our in-flight experience and most importantly our people. Now, 40 years later that rebellious spirit lives on and will continue to drive us forward as we shake up the aviation industry for the next 40 years and beyond."
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