EXCLUSIVE: Former busker who found fame after his cat Bob saved him from a heroin addiction faces being made homeless AGAIN as he fails to keep up with rocketing mortgage payments for his £500,000 house
- James Bowen was busking at Covent Garden, when he met the stray ginger cat
- He told his story in book ‘A Street Cat Named Book’ which was adapted as a film
His touching story of how a stray cat saved him from heroin addiction was turned into an award-winning film, made him a reported £1 million and led to him meeting the Princess of Wales.
Yet, in an extraordinary reversal of fortune, former busker James Bowen says he is about to become homeless again after he failed to keep up with rocketing mortgage payments on the £500,000 house ‘that Bob bought’.
‘I have had to sell my house, as the mortgage rates shot through the roof and I can’t afford to own this home any more,’ said the best-selling author of A Street Cat Named Bob.
Mr Bowen revealed that he and his pets could be back on the streets as soon as tomorrow.
‘Problem is, I won’t get paid till after I have left the house empty and cleared. I don’t even have the money for rent for a temporary place till I can find a new home, which means that myself, my four cats and Chewbie [his shih tzu dog] will be homeless on the 9th as we wait for some money, after paying off the mortgage, to become available to us.’
Yet, in an extraordinary reversal of fortune, former busker James Bowen (pictured with Bob) says he is about to become homeless again after he failed to keep up with rocketing mortgage payments on the £500,000 house ‘that Bob bought’
Mr Bowen was busking with his guitar in Covent Garden, central London, when he met a stray ginger cat he named Bob. Tourists and onlookers uploaded videos of them to YouTube and they became something of a phenomenon (pictured: Princess Kate met Bob and James at the film premiere of ‘A Street Cat named Bob’ in 2016)
Mr Bowen, 44, has appealed online for financial assistance, saying: ‘If anyone is willing to help us, I will return their money on completion of the sale.
‘I can’t move my stuff into storage and I can’t move my personal belongings to even a friend’s house with nothing, I need to pay for at least a removal company to clear my home and enough for temporary storage.’
READ MORE: Street Cat Named Bob, whose exploits were turned into a best-selling book that helped turn his heroin-addict owner James Bowen’s life around, dies aged 14
He added, poignantly: ‘I swear on Bob’s immortal soul, your good deed will be rewarded and repaid as soon as I am able to do so.’
Mr Bowen was busking with his guitar in Covent Garden, central London, when he met a stray ginger cat he named Bob.
Tourists and onlookers uploaded videos of them to YouTube and they became something of a phenomenon.
Mr Bowen’s bond with Bob encouraged him to slowly withdraw his methadone and beat his heroin addiction.
He later credited Bob with giving him ‘the determination to knuckle down and get over it’, saying: ‘Using drugs is a selfish thing, Bob gave me something else to focus on.’
However, after Bob was fatally run over in 2020, at the age of at least 14, Mr Bowen admitted he returned to his old habit.
He explained to The Sun earlier this year: ‘I remember feeling suicidal. I felt I wanted it to end. I started looking for an escape again and I started using heroin once more.’
It cost him his planned marriage to his Polish fiancee, Monika Hertes, and he said by last summer he was back in the same state as when he first met Bob. But Mr Bowen says he has been clean since the New Year.
After their story was published in a local paper, Mr Bowen was offered a book deal in 2010.
Since 2012 he has had six best-selling books published about his life and travels with the ginger cat.
Combined sales of A Street Cat Named Bob, its sequel, The World According to Bob, and the children’s book, Bob: No Ordinary Cat, even topped a million copies – and his book signings were known to attract more than 500 fans at a time. But Mr Bowen later had a bitter falling-out with the film-maker who had immortalised him on the silver screen (pictured: Luke Treadaway as James in the film adaption)
Combined sales of A Street Cat Named Bob, its sequel, The World According to Bob, and the children’s book, Bob: No Ordinary Cat, even topped a million copies – and his book signings were known to attract more than 500 fans at a time.
But Mr Bowen later had a bitter falling-out with the film-maker who had immortalised him on the silver screen.
Producer Adam Rolston queried a failed scheme to raise £160,000 for a cat cafe which never opened. Spokesmen said Mr Bowen had been confused and the cash eventually went to charities.
Mr Rolston emailed private messages to Mr Bowen as concern grew among fans about his requests for cash, including another fundraiser for £10,000 to pay for Mr Bowen’s wedding to his Polish fiancee.
Mr Bowen, 41, claimed in return that Mr Rolston and others had exploited him.
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