Lovers' Guide star Wendy-Ann Paige was surviving off just £6 a day in her final days and lived 'like a hermit', her partner has revealed.
The actress, who shot to fame in the nineties as a sex guru, was found dead at her home in Southend at the age of 61.
At the height of her fame, Ms Paige was a millionaire after her breakout film sold 1.3million copies in Britain and led to her being snapped up on a five-book deal to write about sex and relationships.
But following battles with depression and PTSD and a £70,000-a-year cocaine habit, she spent her final few years living on benefits.
The shocking revelation was made by her partner Christian Bines, who told the Sun that on some days Ms Paige 'wouldn't eat' and would 'go without basics'.
'She went from so much money to nothing. She was such a lovely person. Imagine going from all that to where she ended up,' he said.
'We just about got through together, but it was really tough.
'There was never any heating, it was becoming really difficult to pay off the bills she had. Unbelievable isn't it?'
Ms Paige shot to fame in 1991, aged just 28, as the actress in non-fiction movie The Lovers' Guide, which sold 1.3million copies in Britain.
Mr Bines found Ms Paige unresponsive on the morning of December 13.
Police officers are investigating the death and a post-mortem is yet to be carried out to determine her cause of death.
Mr Bines said: 'I just woke up and she was dead. She wouldn't move and was already gone. I instantly phoned 999.
'They reckon she may have overdosed on tablets in the night. I remember the evening before she said she wasn't in pain anymore.
'She'd been in agony ever since falling down some steps when going to the cinema in October last year.
'The accident left her with a slipped disc in her back, a broken collarbone and broken deformed arm which she never truly recovered from.'
Ms Paige shot to fame in 1991, aged just 28, as the actress in non-fiction movie The Lovers' Guide.
It was the first explicit film to gain an 18 rating certificate and sold all over the world.
She became an instant overnight celebrity and snapped up a five-book deal to write about sex and relationships.
She later became a newspaper astrologist and even wrote for the Sun as a sex columnist.
The newly acclaimed sex expert was making hundreds of thousands of pounds a year and partying with A-listers including Michael Douglas at star-studded events across the globe.
In 1992 she married Mr Duffield in Las Vegas on her way to playing poker with Jack Nicholson - an event she missed for the whirlwind wedding - but the couple later got divorced in 2006.
Ms Paige lived in a £2million mansion at the height of her fame but developed a crippling £70,000 cocaine habit and died in a small flat in the seaside town.
She also suffered from PTSD and depression before her death.
Her marriage also started to suffer their marriage, as she claimed Mr Duffield was jealous of her fame and couldn't 'keep up' with her in the bedroom.
Ms Paige became an overnight celebrity, securing book deals, partying with the stars and becoming a newspaper columnist
They tried to rekindle their relationship by moving to Thailand in 1999 to open a restaurant, but they split following year.
Following her death, An Essex Police spokesman said: 'We were called by colleagues in the East of England Ambulance Service Trust at about midday on Friday December 13 after they were alerted to a woman aged in her sixties having been found to have died in Southend.
'Officers were sent to the scene to support. The woman's death is being treated as unexpected and unexplained and post-mortem examination will be carried out to identify the cause of her death.'