Stacey Solomon's 'ruthless' behaviour with Essex's mumfluencers exposed: From the Style Sisters to Mrs Hinch and now Money Mum, insiders tell 'there's only so much money to go around', her 'uncanny' habit... and reveal 'frenemy' drama

When Stacey Solomon posted a smiling selfie alongside Money Mum, a popular personal finance expert, fans were quick to celebrate the pairing.

Two Essex-born mothers. Two hugely successful influencers. Two women who have turned relatability into lucrative empires.

The photo suggested amicable friendship – even collaboration. Behind the scenes, however, industry insiders are less convinced.

And as I can reveal, Money Mum – whose real name is Gemma Bird – is well advised to proceed with caution.

‘Stacey is ruthless when it comes to business,’ one source tells me. ‘As soon as those cameras turn off, she’s a different person, and one who knows exactly what she wants.’

Another added: ‘She started out wholesome, but she’s not that girl any more. She knows where the money is. And she goes for it.’

They might have a point. For in the course of the past five years, Stacey’s career has followed something of a pattern.

From professional organisers, to ‘cleanfluencers’, to the booming personal finance space – her current interest – Stacey’s rise has been marked by an uncanny habit of identifying popular new niches, befriending some of the leading figures in the field and then surging ahead thanks to her BBC contacts, glossy agency backing and primetime media exposure.

First came The Style Sisters, then Mrs Hinch. Is Money Mum next?

Back in December 2019, Stacey invited professional organisers the Style Sisters into her home to tackle her sons’ ‘chaotic’ bedrooms.

The Essex-based duo, Gemma Lilly and Charlotte Reddington, were well-known in interiors circles. Best friends who bonded after becoming young mums, they had spent nearly two decades refining their approach to decluttering, organisation and home styling.

Labels, zones, tidy systems, detoxing spaces... it was the perfect Instagram content. Stacey documented the entire process at the time.

‘We’ve maximised this space for the boys,’ the sisters explained at the time. ‘We’ve detoxed what they’ve outgrown, kept what they love, and labelled everything so the children know where it goes.’

Stacey was gushing in response: ‘I left the Style Sisters at my house and I’m actually so jealous,’ she told her followers. ‘They’re sorting Lego. The girls literally saved my life.’

Within time, however, the lines began to blur.

In February 2025, Stacey launched her own BBC decluttering show. Sort Your Life Out was fronted by her, backed by her agency and supported by prime-time promotion.

The concept? Helping families organise their belongings and calm their lives. Sound familiar?

At their peak, the Style Sisters were everywhere. They appeared regularly on ITV’s This Morning, built a strong following on social media and were even rumoured to be in talks for their own ITV series, a project that never materialised.

Stacey, meanwhile, became ever more popular as a go-to face for decluttering hacks in her own right. She appeared on ITV’s Lorraine demonstrating techniques that seemed strikingly similar to those the Style Sisters had already made popular.

Gemma and Charlotte addressed the issue of originality when they spoke to Rochelle Humes’s podcast last year.

‘The engagement you were getting inspired not just people starting similar businesses, but celebrities too,’ Rochelle commented.

Whereupon the sisters accepted the invitation and took a gentle swipe. ‘We’re the OGs [Original Gangsters],’ they laughed. ‘You heard it here first.’

By the time lockdown hit, professional organising had exploded and the Style Sisters found their niche had become crowded with rivals – and that one of those rivals had emerged, effortlessly, on top.

The overlap didn’t stop at television. The Style Sisters released their book, Calm Your Home, in May 2021, a guide to stylish organisation built on their decades of experience.

Stacey beat them to the shelves with Tap to Tidy, published two months earlier by Penguin in March 2021. A follow-up came in 2022. Both became bestsellers.

Then there was the matter of labels. Labelling everything became a defining feature of Stacey’s brand, from food in fridges to refill bottles to stationery drawers.

She promoted £60 label machines on Instagram, while her sister Jemma Solomon launched a business called The Label Lady.

And let’s not forget the Lazy Susan (a turntable tray or storage unit), another Solomon favourite. Stacey ‘swears’ by them on Sort Your Life Out and discussed them in an Ideal Home interview in January 2025.

Yet, the Style Sisters had spent years championing both careful labelling and Lazy Susans, claiming – not without reason – they were the keys to an organised kitchen.

And if the Style Sisters laid the groundwork for Stacey’s rocketing success as a domestic goddess, Mrs Hinch helped her launch into the stratosphere

It was in 2019, as Sophie Hinchliffe’s cleaning empire exploded, that Stacey reached out offering to help the queen of clean navigate her new-found fame.

The two bonded quickly, appearing regularly on each other’s social media feeds. Fans joked they were morphing into one another. Stacey even chose Sophie as one of her bridesmaids.

Behind the camera lens, however, the influencer economy was becoming cut-throat.

‘Brand deals are everything,’ one source says. ‘And there’s only so much money to go around.’

Stacey developed her own interest in cleaning techniques – and in talking about them. And, soon enough, both women found themselves working with Amazon, Tesco, Asda, Home Bargains and Karcher. Both were signed to agency YMU.

Then the friendship faded.

Sophie vanished from Stacey’s posts. Mrs Hinch could no longer be seen in Stacey’s wedding photos. A congratulatory comment under Sophie’s pregnancy announcement was mysteriously deleted.

‘Stacey turned them into frenemies,’ one observer claimed. ‘Hinch [had] thought it was real. Stacey thought it was business.’

By the summer of 2024, Stacey was launching Stacey Loves, a range of domestic products to be stocked in the very stores Sophie had once dominated.

Which brings us back to Money Mum. Gemma Bird built her following the hard way. After pulling herself out of debt, she began sharing money-saving tips on Instagram in 2019. A year of daily posting paid off and her ‘No Spend Days’ went viral. A Sunday Times best-selling book followed.

She became a regular on Lorraine. Brand deals rolled in. And as of 2025, her company reportedly held £600,000 in assets.

Now, she and Stacey are friends. They comment on each other’s posts. They attend parties together. And share brand partnerships with Amazon, Tesco and Joy of Clean. Gemma has even attended events for REHAB, the haircare brand Stacey co-owns.

To fans, it looks supportive yet to insiders, it seems familiar.

Money, like cleaning and organising, is a booming influencer category. And, as Stacey has already shown, she’s not afraid to pivot.

For now, the smiles remain. But in the world of commercial influencers, friendship and competition often walk hand in hand.

And Stacey Solomon knows better than most how one thing can turn into another.