How JK Rowling was saved by friend's £4,000 loan

The magazine, which is regarded as something of a bible for the world’s top business leaders, invited readers on its website to vote for the celebrity they think is regarded above their status.

And in the top ten nominations they listed Harry Potter creator Rowling as one of the options, despite her selling more than 250 million copies of her books worldwide.

She appears alongside well- known US-based celebrities such as actors Courtney Cox, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, as well as rock star Ozzy Osbourne and his family - who appear in their own MTV show - in the list.

Real Madrid footballer and England captain David Beckham also appears among the nominations despite his sporting successes.

The list was compiled by Michael Noer, managing editor of Forbes.com - who picked out the celebrities he thought were the most over-hyped.

He said: "The list for the Forbes.com poll was based on editor’s choice."

Last year Rowling sat at the top of the 100 highest earning British women list and now has an estimated 650 million fortune.

The worldwide box office take for the Harry Potter series of films has so far come to more than 1 billion alone.

Meanwhile, in a BBC Radio 4 interview broadcast last night, Rowling revealed how a friend rescued her from the "scrapheap".

The author was living on benefits in Edinburgh after leaving her first husband.

She described how she had won a place to become a student teacher, but could not afford childcare for her daughter, Jessica.

But a friend gave her a 4,000 loan that allowed her to carry on studying.

Rowling talked of her gratitude. "I broke down and cried when my friend offered it to me," she recalled. "At the time it was like half a million pounds to me. It was this enormous sum of money. I think we both thought I would never be able to pay it back. The friend was saying in effect: ‘Here is a gift to help you’."

"I was living on virtually nothing - income support then was just under 70 a week, all in. I’d been teaching abroad and I wanted to qualify for teaching over here.

"I very much felt that I was on the scrapheap. I desperately wanted to work.

"The first time I ever had to go into a post office and pick up my benefit I felt everyone knew why I was there. It was as if I was in a clinic for some horrible illness."

The loan enabled her to study and pay for childcare.

Once she had graduated with the PGCE teaching qualifacation, Rowling worked on supply for a year, teaching French.

After her first book was published, she received a 6,000 grant from the Scottish Arts Council to complete Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.