She’s fired – but has her head high

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.

Ms 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 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.”

Ms Apostolova, a former head girl who is training to be a wealth manager for British entrepreneurs, said she effectively ended up firing herself. “He was just about to fire Katie when I brought the attention to me.”

She added: “[On] previous episodes I’ve seen Lord Sugar save people who speak up for themselves, so I wanted to do that.”