“I’m sorry I’m not posh!”: Fired Apprentice candidate Sarah Byrne explains class feud with Jasmine Kundra
“I'm very passionate about being working class," says the first candidate to exit the process
Sarah Byrne has become the first candidate to be fired from this year’s Apprentice – but she didn’t go down without a fight.
The 29-year-old children's acting academy owner came to blows with project manager Jasmine Kundra after the girls team were beaten by the boys in a fiendish buying task in Malta.
Looking for faults in the team's performance during a trip to the loser’s café, Jasmine said Sarah was a horse that “could not be held back”, to which Sarah replied: “I’m so sorry I’m not middle class and posh!”
- Meet Apprentice 2018 candidate and Shameless star Sarah Byrne
- The Apprentice 2018: meet the candidates
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Speaking to RadioTimes.com about the clash, Sarah said that it was Jasmine who provoked her reaction. “Sometimes I felt like she was talking down to me and she has a certain way of holding herself,” she explained. “You know, sometimes it can just be somebody's demeanour and the way they put themselves across.”
However, Sarah says there wasn’t actually a class divide between the candidates, with her comments in the café only said in the heat of the moment. “What you have to understand is that we were in a very stressful situation. You've not had much sleep and you all want to succeed. It was just a disagreement. It happens.
“We're from very different backgrounds and worlds and sometimes it takes a lot of understanding. And I only had three days to get to know her.”
She added: “I'm very passionate about being working class. I'll always be humble and remember where I came from and that's all I'm going to say on that.”
The Apprentice won’t, Sarah hopes, be the last time you see her on TV. “I'm hopefully going to stay within the media. Presenting – I've got the gift of the gab! – but maybe some more reality TV,” she said. Although she’d have to “really think” before signing up to any specific show...
But if Sarah doesn’t make a TV comeback, she says she’s already fulfilling the business plan that she would have submitted to Lord Sugar, launching another acting academy and management agency.
“Everything that was in my business plan I'm doing. [Getting fired has] not stopped me from doing anything. If anything, it's made me want it more,” she said. “It's not great being fired in week one. But failure is sometimes the way to success.”
So, why did Lord Sugar actually fire her? Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press at the show's launch, the business magnate explained his decision: "In the very first task one has to use instinct. The last three people [in the boardroom: Sarah, Jasmine and Jackie Fast] – it was difficult to see who was responsible.
"What I didn’t like about [Sarah] was that she was disruptive and I just had a gut feeling that she really wasn’t going to progress through the process."
The Apprentice is on 9pm Wednesdays, BBC1
The Apprentice 2018: meet the candidates
Authors
Thomas is Digital editor at BBC Science Focus. Writing about everything from cosmology to anthropology, he specialises in the latest psychology, health and neuroscience discoveries. Thomas has a Masters degree (distinction) in Magazine Journalism from the University of Sheffield and has written for Men’s Health, Vice and Radio Times. He has been shortlisted as the New Digital Talent of the Year at the national magazine Professional Publishers Association (PPA) awards. Also working in academia, Thomas has lectured on the topic of journalism to undergraduate and postgraduate students at The University of Sheffield.