05 January 2023 , 12:38
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The Apprentice returns for its 17th series tonight when the candidates jet off to Antigua in the Caribbean, where they will be tasked with creating and selling excursions to tourists.
And the upcoming BBC series looks like it might be the most exciting yet, as bosses have lined up two hair salon owners, two sweet shop owners and a safari guide to compete for Lord Sugar's investment.
But ahead of the new series airing, one former contestant from the show has opened up about the gruelling filming schedule which left her in tears.
Camila Ainsworth took on the iconic BBC show in 2018 at just 22 years old, and ended her stint as the runner-up.
Camila Ainsworth is opening up about her time on The Apprentice (Camila Ainsworth / Instagram)Being one of the youngest Apprentice contestants on the series, she impressed industry experts with her nut milk brand - narrowly missing out on the top spot to swimwear brand owner Sian Gabbidon.
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Although the now 27-year-old has said she has ‘no regrets’ about appearing on the show, she has warned that the show is ‘so much harder than it seems’.
She has claimed the candidates are expected to begin their working days at 3am with just four hours sleep.
Camilla, who now works as a business consultant, from Deansgate, Manchester, said: "I wanted to go on the show because I was always an avid viewer.
The series is returning tonight (BBC/Fremantle Media/Ray Burmiston)"I quickly discovered it is a well-oiled machine. It's a show like no other.
"Everything you see on the show is real - even the early starts. You only get three to five hours of sleep per night.
"The boardroom is like no atmosphere you'll ever experience. It goes on for hours and nobody is allowed to speak out of turn,” she revealed.
But perhaps the worst part of the process is the ‘brutal’ interview stage which often leaves candidates in tears, she has revealed.
Camila headed onto the series in 2018 as one of the youngest candidates on the show (BBC/Boundless Taylor Herring)
She came out the other side of the series smiling despite the hardship she faced on the show (Courtesy Camilla Ainsworth SWNS)"The hardest part was the interview process - six hours of being grilled in back-to-back interviews.
"It was brutal. We all got torn apart, I think every single one of us cried.”
Camilla said the programme was hard before she even got on it - with a brutal process of selecting candidates.
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She recalled ‘five or six different stages’ of the application process including literacy and psychological tests.
Once on the show, it only got more challenging - as she said upon entering the house, candidates' phones were taken away.
She said: "You're in a bubble, kept completely separate from the outside world.
"People say 'why don't you just Google things?' but you don't have access to anything like that - you don't even have a way of telling the time.
"But I have no regrets for going on the show, or anything I did on it. It was the hardest but one of the best things I've ever done."
A spokesperson for the series has responded in a statement: "Duty of care to our candidates is of the utmost importance to us. We take the welfare of anyone involved in The Apprentice extremely seriously and have thorough and robust measures in place to ensure everyone feels supported.
"We have a dedicated welfare team who are there to support candidates through the process, and we are proactive in ensuing our welfare procedures are under constant review and updated with each series."