I sneaked off for secret romp on The Apprentice – hapless ‘sex ban’ has really turned it into TV’s hottest reality show
CRAWLING along the hotel carpet on my hands and knees desperate to avoid detection, I felt like I was in a Mission Impossible film.
In reality, I was about to commit the cardinal sin in The Apprentice, something so dreadful it threatened to see me kicked off the show… having sex with one of my fellow co-stars.
After weeks of banter and flirtation, Lottie Lion and I were sitting opposite each other at dinner after a long day’s filming in Finland when she flashed two numbers at me using her hands.
I knew exactly what she meant. It was her hotel room number. I didn’t expect it. I didn’t think our cheeky exchanges would go anywhere until maybe after the show had finished.
I didn’t know where she was staying prior to that moment either. Where the boys and girls were in the hotel was a closely guarded secret to prevent ‘extra-curricular activities’.
There are very strict rules when it comes to relationships, or the ‘no contact’ rule as it’s known on The Apprentice, and producers do everything possible to stop anything happening.
The act of sex or having a relationship is so taboo that it’s written into the very thick contract that you have to sign before going on the show. They even give you a lecture about it too.
At the time, you think ‘Ok, cool’. In your mind, it seems impossible that you could have an ‘interpersonal relationship’ on The Apprentice. There’s too much at stake.
In the worst-case scenario, you’re about to embark on a life-changing opportunity, get massive exposure and land great contacts.
At its best, you could get a £250,000 investment from Lord Alan Sugar or become his business partner. Sex is out of the question.
It feels impossible to think that you would risk it all because you “couldn’t keep it in your pants” and yet, trust me on this, I guarantee it happens nearly EVERY year on the show.
Believe it or not, The Apprentice has considerably more sexual tension, temptation and possibly more naughty moments than Love Island and other dating shows combined.
‘Forbidden fruit’
While it may seem far-fetched, the intense nature of the show coupled with the ban on contact, sends animalistic desires into overdrive. It’s the ultimate forbidden fruit.
That’s what led me to risk throwing it all away back on The Apprentice in 2019 while we were away on a task in Finland and I sneaked over to Lottie’s hotel room.
I was as shocked by my behaviour as much as anyone else. You’re very scared of breaking the rules on the show and desperately don’t want to be kicked out.
But The Apprentice has a way of getting to you. There are long filming hours – sometimes you’re up at 4am and don’t go to bed until midnight, if not later.
You have minders who monitor everything you do, stop you from talking about certain topics and make sure no one sneaks into each other’s bedrooms.
You have no contact with the outside world. You’re cut off from friends and family. You’re not even allowed to give anyone a friendly hug when things get tough.
I felt sick with the thought that I’d done something so f***ing stupid that it would get me kicked off the show
Lewis Ellis
It’s so extreme that even when you go away for a task and stay at a hotel they cut off your ability to watch TV, use the room phone or the internet.
They forbid you from leaving your room too, unless you have their permission, and they take your room key to make sure that if you dare try, they know about it and can punish you.
It’s a surreal experience being on the show. The restrictions are so strict it makes you want to fight against them, like a rebellious teenager.
‘Mission Impossible’
On the night I broke the show’s rules, I remember my heart racing as I peered around onto the landing – before using a piece of card to jam the latch so my door wouldn’t lock.
It was a floor with a gap in the centre where you could see all four corridors if you were standing up.
I saw the production staff walking around. I don’t know if they were patrolling the corridors or not but I dropped to my hands and knees. I felt like Ethan Hunt on my own Mission Impossible.
I crawled along the corridors so that I couldn’t be seen, I was hidden under the wall, until I reached Lottie’s room. I knocked on her door and went inside. When I left it was late so I didn’t need to sneak around and brazenly walked back to my room.
Knowing it could get us fired from the process, I thought we were going to keep what happened between us but that wasn’t the case.
Although Lottie denies it, I was told she spoke to the girls about it. Then the rumours started to spread and eventually, one of my guy friends on the show came up.
“Lottie’s been telling people about you two and the staff know,” he said. I was literally like, “S***, I’m getting kicked out. I broke the contract.”
After confronting her, I went straight to a member of the production team. I was genuinely terrified and confessed all. I thought honesty was the best policy.
I felt sick with the thought that I’d done something so f***ing stupid that it would get me kicked off the show.
We had a cinema day in the house where we watched a film. I remember people sitting close to each other and trying to put blankets over themselves, only to be told it’s not allowed
Lewis
They immediately pulled us into separate rooms, what happened next was very f***ing awkward.
We had a conversation about safe sex, it felt like I was a child rather than 28, with someone in their 50s.
They asked if we needed counselling and if it was consexual. I feel it was a box-ticking exercise but I have to say it was taken very seriously.
Brutal revenge
We weren’t kicked off as we were told we would be, but there was a punishment no one knows about until now.
For every task, you are given a brief that tells you what you are and are not allowed to do, what colours you can choose from, the logos, flavours and all these other things.
To screw us over, they didn’t let Lottie and me read it. We had to sit in a locked car instead.
Essentially, we weren’t allowed to know many things about the project and didn’t know what the task entailed. While I can laugh about it now, it wasn’t very funny at the time.
I was crapping myself because I knew if you don’t have input into the task or don’t know how it works you will look very stupid and like you’re not good at your job.
That can lead to you getting fired but also, everyone at home, the millions of people watching, will think you are an idiot. Production has a lot of power over you in the show.
While we were caught out, we weren’t the only ones flirting. Some may have shared a secret kiss or done other things and not got caught.
Stars who hooked up on the show
This year’s contestant Amber-Rose Badrudin was allegedly caught ‘half-naked’ cosying up to co-star Keir Shave in a hotel room. A source told us: “They were read the riot act.”
Lewis Ellis and Lottie Lion got it on after filming a task in Finland, back in 2019. He told us he crawled along the floor to her hotel room and it “felt like Mission: Impossible”.
Jade English and James White hooked up on the 2017 series despite him being engaged and her having a long-term boyfriend. They ended it with their partners after the show.
James Hill and Lauren Riley were rumoured to have “had a fairly full-on fling” and were “always sneaking off” together, according to insiders on the 2014 show.
Things heated up in 2016 as two couples formed in a ‘foursome’ session. Courtney Wood and Jessica Cunningham were alleged “found under the covers kissing… several times” alongside Grainne McCoy and Paul Sullivan. Their flings came to an end after the show.
Jordan Poulton and Luisa Zissman reportedly “spent a lot of time in cupboard” kissing during the 2014 series. He recalled “minders there trying to stop us”.
Harrison Jones and Michaela Wain had the first Apprentice baby. They fell for each other while competing in 2017. It’s unclear when their romance started but little Grayson was born a year later.
Winner of the 2022 series Harpreet Kaur fell for co-star Akshay Thakrar during the show and the couple married two years later.
Apprentice winners Dr Leah Totton and Mark Wright, victors in 2013 and 2014, had a year-long fling outside the show. It fizzled out due to “busy schedules”.
Kate Walsh and Phil Tayor were the first couple to come from The Apprentice in 2009. They clashed in the boardroom but outside of the show were an item and as of 2018, were still together.
You can tell who likes who because they sit together, mill about each other, talk to each other and act like young teens in love.
Once, we had a cinema day in the house where we watched a film. I remember people sitting close to each other and trying to put blankets over themselves, only to be told it’s not allowed. It’s clear what would have happened if they didn’t intervene.
It may seem odd thing that on such a serious show that you would want to have sex or even have the energy. But there’s a lot of tension and you’re truly isolated, so all of your connections with others feel intensified.
‘Like holiday flings’
The only thing I could compare it to is when people go abroad with pals. I was a holiday rep for 11 seasons and every year a group would come up to ask about a female friend who was missing.
I would try to gently tell them that their mate was probably shagging someone they had met but they would never believe it.
They refused to accept that could happen because there was ‘no way in a million years she would do that’ or ‘it’s not in her modus operandi’. I’ve heard it all. And yet, low and behold later that day this missing lady would emerge, often with a big smile on her face.
You would be surprised what can happen when you are in a surreal environment. People can be very different to who they are in their normal lives and it’s no different on The Apprentice.
You end up acting like a group of teenagers, you go out and you cause chaos, only this time it’s on TV for millions to watch.
Fancying someone and having sex is very normal. It’s not a crime, it’s human nature. The only unusual thing is the response from the show’s production team.
It’s amusing they were so anti-romance considering it’s a business show. Bear in mind, most business owners are sleeping with their employees. Even at Christmas parties, people do things they shouldn’t with colleagues.
‘Sexed-up show’
It’s odd that the show comes down so hard on flings because they try to make it sexy and actively sex it up in every way they can.
There were multiple times when I had to stop cameras trying to follow me into the showers or film me topless after waking up. On our season, there was even a swimwear task.
They genuinely wanted the girls to get into their bikinis on national TV.
When they rightly said ‘No way’, I took one for the team and got into my undersized skimpy red Baywatch-esque shorts. I was trying to be chivalrous and so I stripped off and put my tits on the TV instead.
If entrepreneurs do have a fling or start dating, why not make it part of the storyline in the same way that Love Island does?
Lewis
Lottie and I fell out shortly after our fling and survived four more tasks before we heard “You’re fired!” from Lord Sugar. We lost out in the interviews stage of the competition.
I have to say despite all the hassle it caused, I don’t regret having sex on The Apprentice. What Lottie and I did was a very normal, very human thing to do. And to be honest, if it wasn’t on a TV show, nobody would care less.
I don’t think many people who haven’t been on the show could understand.
With so many hot young singles, this year promises to be an exciting one for The Apprentice too but unfortunately, they have already finished filming so my advice is a little late for them.
So to the next 18 candidates who go on the show in 2026 and in fact, all future seasons of the show, I would say don’t hold back, just go for it.
Don’t let meddling producers tell you what you are and aren’t allowed to do. You’re a grown-ass adult, if you want to snog someone do it, if you want to have sex with someone go for it.
‘Ultimate TV show’
But most importantly, learn a lesson from my experience and make sure you keep your mouths shut.
Don’t tell anyone because if producers find out, it will come back to bite you and I believe it dwindles your chances of winning the show… even though it shouldn’t.
I don’t think people having cheeky flings on The Apprentice is necessarily a bad thing. Sex is something we all do and a lot of romances have come from it, there have even been at least two marriages and two babies.
I actually believe producers 100 per cent are missing a massive trick by clamping down on any ‘extra-curricular activities’ on the show.
If entrepreneurs do have a fling or start dating, why not make it part of the storyline in the same way that Love Island does?
They could pit lovers against one another on tasks and have very tense boardroom clashes where they have the dilemma of fighting dirty to remain on the show or letting their partners progress and sacrifice their chance of winning £250,000.
'You need to be a spy to have sex on The Apprentice & it would have to be a quickie...
DESPITE being threatened with the boot there have been multiple Apprentice contestants who have violated the ‘sex ban’.
It’s not just Lewis Ellis and Lottie Lion, former stars James Hill and Lauren Riley allegedly had a “full-on fling” and Luisa Zissman and Jordan Pouilton snogged in a cupboard.
For last year’s candidate Sam Saadet, who is happily married, she tells The Sun it’s no surprise The Apprentice has become a hotbed for romance and frisky antics.
“I can see why it happens, because it’s forbidden fruit, some people will want to do it more,” says the entrepreneur, who runs The Mummy Movement.
“It would be very hard to do though. You would have to be proper sneaky in the house, locking yourself in the loo or something like that or sneaking into their room during the hotel stays.
“It would almost have to be top secret stuff, like you’re a spy. You would have to make it a quickie if you did do that and you’d have to be really careful because if you’re caught you will be fired and taken off the show.
“In your down days you have a bit more time away from producers, like you’re chilling in the living room or the garden, so people could make a plan there.”
Sam says no one on her series had a fling – as fair as she is aware of – but she can imagine how others may fall for someone on the show due to how intense it is.
“You do have a laugh with each other, even though producers try to stop you having banter and are very anti-romance, and can get really close,” she tells us.
“You’re away from your partners, put under so much pressure, who do you turn to? Sometimes you need a cuddle. You need to be told, ‘It’s going to be ok’.
“You haven’t got your partner there and if you’re single, you may want comfort, you can see why people could be tempted to turn to other people for that.
“When people have affairs they get a thrill because it’s doing something they shouldn’t and I imagine it’s exactly the same on The Apprentice.”
You can follow Sam Saadet’s work and find out more about The Mummy Movement here: www.themummymovement.com.
It would lead to messy onscreen break-ups, love triangles and faked romances to get ahead. It would be TV gold and the perfect tonic for this ageing show.
The Apprentice has gone very stale and, frankly, quite boring over the past few years, it’s a miracle that they keep getting commissioned.
Maybe acknowledging, recognising and even, dare I say it… encouraging relationships and adding another dynamic to the show could provide the spark it needs.
Doing so could be a winning format for today’s audience, transforming The Apprentice into the ultimate reality TV show and keeping it on our screens until 2030 and beyond.