Apprentice star Karren Brady's 'work regrets'

Apprentice star Karren Brady is renowned as a workaholic - but even she has branded her return to work three days after giving birth as "shameful". The businesswoman, who rarely even finds time for a holiday, said she thought her career would be in jeopardy otherwise. But in an interview with Hello! magazine she admits she made a mistake not to spend more time bonding with her daughter Sophia, who is now 14. Brady, 41, said: "It was a mistake and most people would look on it with shock, as they should. "When you're young and in a career, you don't think it will last a lifetime. You think it will slip through your fingers if you take time out." The star, who is pictured on the beach in Mauritius, was interviewed as she enjoyed only her third holiday in 15 years - one of which was her honeymoon. Football executive Brady recently became a member of Lord Sugar's for BBC One series The Apprentice. The West Ham vice-chairman said of her lack of holidays: "On the rare occasion I did go away, I'd always be working, on my laptop or BlackBerry, and almost never left the room." Brady, who also has a son Paolo, 11, with her husband of 15 years, Burton Albion manager Paul Peschisolido, said she had now begun to enjoy her holiday time with her latest break. "Although I did take my laptop, I didn't even turn it on," she said.

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.