Jenna: 'I never watched The Apprentice'

Jenna: 'I never watched The Apprentice'
Jenna: 'I never watched The Apprentice' (Image credit: PA)

Jenna Whittingham has confessed she never watched The Apprentice before appearing on the TV show. The 25-year-old beauty salon owner was fired by Lord Sugar after her team blamed losing this week's wine promoting task on the humorous advert she directed. The show-jumping champion revealed she heard about the 250,000 pound investment prize on offer, but had no idea what she was getting herself into when she applied for the BBC show. She admitted: "To be honest with you - this sounds really awful - but I haven't really watched every single series. It was a case of last year when they announced it was going to be the investment that I watched a few clips and put my application in because I genuinely wanted to get an investment." The Lancashire lass - who hopes to expand her chain of beauty and clothing boutiques - also admitted her northern accent may have gone against her. Lord Sugar's advisor Karren Brady told the Radio Times this week: "Her voice grates a bit, but I like her." Jenna said: "When the process started I think it was a lot, having a very broad northern voice, and I think, of all the candidates in the boardroom, my voice came across very broad and northern, and probably a bit higher pitched because I was a bit nervous. "I think it's a big shock to have a very broad northerner in there, but the northern charm obviously worked on Karren because she said that she liked me." Jenna was convinced team-mate Stephen Brady would get the boot. She said: "I was proper devastated when I got fired. I didn't think I was getting fired because, after I gave quite a good profile of why I should stay, I actually thought Stephen was going. So it was a massive shock to me really."

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.