After a task that involved The Apprentice candidates being whisked off to Austria to flog bike tours to tourists, Lord Alan Sugar said ‘You’re fired’ to the first contestant. Sent back home to Essex after just one episode of the hit BBC show was Emma Rothwell, 29, who shared her disappointment over her premature departure to Metro. ‘I was just like, I’ve let myself down,’ the online gift store owner says of the moment she was booted out of the boardroom. ‘I’ve let everyone else down. I just knew I had more to give and could have fought for my place more.’.

Emma did not just want to win The Apprentice for herself – but for all everyday Joes in business. She went into the show with a plan: to prove you don’t have to be a cut-throat lunatic to succeed. ‘I just really wanted people that you can be a normal person and be nice in business; that you don’t have to be fighting or nasty,’ she explains. ‘I wanted to represent the normal people among us who have gone into business, but I didn’t get the chance.’.

That said, Emma concedes she is far from being a wallflower, despite what Lord Sugar may have indicated as he fired her from The Apprentice. ‘I think I perceived as being quiet. I wasn’t. I was energetic. There was even a scene with me with a megaphone trying to sell the tours,’ she says. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video.

Up Next. ‘They edited a clip of [fellow candidate] Carlos saying that I didn’t have any energy and whatnot and I was like, what a load of old rubbish. ‘I’m not quiet at all. My friends are going to find it absolutely hysterical that me, of all people, was fired for being quiet.’. Emma believes the edit she received was not ‘properly representative’ of her personality but holds no grudges. ‘They are there to create a TV show and they do a cracking job at it,’ she says.

‘I was happy to go out a hero without making myself look like an idiot. I’d rather go out on a high. She adds: ‘It was not properly representative of me but you know what you’re getting yourself in for.’. Emma does have one suggestion for the show, which has been on air for 20 years, though. She believes the first candidate should be fired in the second week to allow them time to adapt to the process.

‘It’s going to sound very self-serving,’ she says with a smile. ‘But I wouldn’t let anyone go that first week as it’s so overwhelming. They do it on Strictly Come Dancing, you get that week of grace, so I don’t understand why they can’t do it on The Apprentice.’. As for her plans post The Apprentice, Emma is going to put in place the proposal she pitched to Lord Sugar, 77, to expand her business Quirky Giraffe regardless.

The online shop, born in Emma’s boyfriend’s garage in 2020 when she was furloughed during the pandemic, has been growing ever since she put her first batch of personalised mugs on sale. She had used half her savings – £600 – to found the company and when her original job said she could return to work, she was making more than her salary so respectfully declined. Emma has seen it all at Quirky Giraffe. Literally. ‘I do think people do forget that I’m a human and I’m gonna see their pictures,’ she says. ‘We’ve had all sorts over the years. But I’ve never said no: I’m a very open-minded person.’.

What’s been the most hilarious upload?. ‘I’ve seen a few bottoms,’ Emma says while giggling. ‘And I’ve seen people with chickens on their head. The Apprentice airs Thursday from 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Got a story?. If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

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