First person fired on new series of The Apprentice

 
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22 March 2012
The Weekender

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Apprentice candidate Bilyana Apostolova has insisted that she is "not embarrassed" and left holding her "head up high" after becoming the first person in the new series of the BBC1 show to get fired by Lord Sugar.

The 25-year-old, originally from Bulgaria, was hauled into the boardroom with Katie Wright by team leader Gabrielle Omar, after the women took a profit of only £214.80 in the print business task.

Apostolova, who says she got herself "from a Communist block of flats in Bulgaria to the top of a skyscraper in the heart of the City of London", was fired after she repeatedly interrupted Lord Sugar to defend herself in the boardroom.

She said afterwards: "Having seen the episode I don't feel embarrassed. I didn't make a major mistake. I left there while holding my head up high ... it's arguable whether it was a very fair firing...

"I am disappointed that I left so early on but I'm not embarrassed."

Apostolova, a former head girl who is training to be a wealth manager for British entrepreneurs, said she effectively ended up firing herself.

"Bringing attention to myself right at the end is something that I think pushed him (Lord Sugar) overboard.

"In effect I think I fired myself. He was just about to fire Katie when I brought the attention to me."

Apostolova added: "I've watched previous episodes and I've seen Lord Sugar save people who speak up for themselves so I wanted to do that."

But she added: "I made it quite easy for him to fire me."

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