The Inheritance: The Final - interview with Jesse

Cam was named the winner of Channel 4’s The Inheritance. The Yorkshire scaffolder, 28, won the vote amongst his fellow finalists to be the ultimate Prime Beneficiary, receiving a £100,000 fortune from The Deceased’s estate. Faced with the cash, Cam had the option to keep all the winnings for himself but instead, he chose to share the inheritance with Emma, Hafsah, Hannah and Jesse, gifting them £20,000 each to add to their money already banked. Student and content creator Jesse received £28,200.

Interview with Jesse:

What were your first impressions of the house, The Executor and everyone when you first met them?
I wouldn't even call it a house; the place is massive! Turning up, I thought, this is something big and what's about to happen is going to be big as well. Then I start seeing all the people that I'm now going to be spending time with. I'm trying to figure who's going to be someone that's nice, who’s going to be an enemy. At first, I thought that Cam was going to be someone who would be very loud and gunning for people. Turns out that was completely wrong. He was very nice, very chill. The Executor, he didn’t speak much but I did find that when you're in the strong room, in the moment where you’ve got to decide, he gets you thinking.

Did you have a strategy and did you stick to it? 
My strategy was to just be myself and to do what I think is right. From the beginning, I wanted to be friends with everyone. I wanted to be on everyone's good side. I wanted to be hard working every single day and make other people see that I'm someone that they want to keep in. With the money split, for example, I am someone who's giving so I would like to do that. At the same time, it's a game and for me to be on the good side of other people, I must be good for them. I was the first person to have to split money, I could have lied but it'd be on my conscience and I didn't want to do that. It was a long-term decision, being nice to people from the get-go, hopefully would benefit me in the long term.  

What about some of the requests, were there any that you enjoyed or any that you didn't enjoy so much? 
The first one I enjoyed the most, maybe because it was the first request. I did not expect to be in the lake, so that was fun. I did a lot of running and I enjoy running. I enjoyed the glamping day as well, because I felt like I was good at it. The honey day was quite cool. I wish I went with the snake team, because I like snakes. But instead of that, I was covered in honey. It was fun to begin with, but then after an hour or so, I just wanted to have a shower. I didn’t enjoy the gardening one, as a team I don't think we were too good at it. It was just noise everywhere. 

Did you learn anything about yourself in the process? Or did you surprise yourself with anything that you could do that you didn't think that you might have been able to?
I was confident that I would be able to get along with some people, but I surprised myself that I was able to get along with more or less everyone. I was also happy that other people didn't put me down or push me aside because of my age or the way that I am. I'm proud of myself for being confident in myself, because I was so confident, the other people didn't even question me.

How does it feel to make it all the way to the end?
It feels amazing, obviously. I'm very competitive, and I wanted to make it to the end. For me, this wasn't even about winning the most amount of money. I wanted to get the whole experience and make it to the end. It still feels a bit surreal that this whole thing just happened. 

How did it feel when you learned that Cam was going to equally share the money with all of you?
I felt proud of him, because I’d backed him since the beginning. Everyone else was doubting what he would have done. When I heard the options, I did think it would have been a 50/50, between, option two and option three. The 50/50 is also an easy decision, because you know who you're closest with, if you're going to do a 50/50, you already know who the other person receiving the 50% is. Once people heard what the second option was, they were like, he's going to split it with Jesse. But I thought, there's no way. So, I'm proud of him for doing what he did.

Do you have a standout highlight from the entire experience?
In the first request, when I had to run back with the last bottle of wine at the end to try and help the team one extra bit. I felt like that was quite a cool moment. Also being the first person ever to have been in the strong room. Another one, which contradicts that, the time I put myself forward and I didn't get beneficiary, because I was able to still back myself. 

If you could sum up this experience in three words, what would those three words be?
Crazy, surreal and enjoyable. 

Have you decided how you're going to spend the money? 
Genuinely, right now I personally don't need it for anything urgently, so I'll probably just save it up. I know that I can keep it to help out my family if they need it. My grandma is probably going to have to get into a nursing home sometime soon as she has Alzheimer's. I know that that costs money, so I can help out a bit with that. Also, not that my mum needs help with anything, but she's always been there for me anytime I've needed something so now I have something as well. I don't know what I'll spend it on. I might go on a holiday, but I don't need that amount of money to go on holiday. I’ll take my time deciding but it’s nice knowing it’s there and it being something to consider, for both me and my loved ones.