Brain aneurysm made Karren Brady 'softer'

The Apprentice star Karren Brady has revealed how a potentially fatal illness changed her life for ever.

The 44-year-old businesswoman was treated for a brain aneurysm seven years ago.

She told Hello! Magazine: "I would never have done The Apprentice had I not gone through the experience.

"It made me realise that life is short - and fun - and that you should try new things. I really believe in life-long learning. The moment you think you know it all is when you don't know anything at all."

Her husband, Paul, said the illness changed his wife considerably. He said: "It made her softer and she's less likely to get so fraught about the unimportant things that used to wind her up".

Karren, who started her working life at Saatchi & Saatchi when she was 18 and is currently vice-chairman at West Ham United, said she now regrets going back to work within days after giving birth to her daughter Sophia 17 years ago.

She said: "I regret that, but I didn't understand then.

"In those days, there was no such thing as flexible working or a work-life balance. It is absolutely essential that you take time off when you have a family. I just didn't know that then and nobody told me that it was OK. I was still trying to prove myself so I carried on working."

Karren said she now liked nothing more than staying at home and cooking for her family. She said: "We rarely go out and I love to cook. We do a lot of Friday night dinners and Sunday lunches. A slow-roast lamb is my speciality, or a king prawn curry on a Saturday night."

 

Patrick McLennan

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.