'The Apprentice' 2016: Aleksandra King Reveals Real Reason She Quit The Show

‘Apprentice’ candidate Aleksandra King has opened up about her decision to quit the show, admitting she didn’t enjoy the “atmosphere” of the show, insisting it wasn’t conducive to good business.

Ahead of Thursday’s (27 October) episode, it was revealed that, in a first for ‘The Apprentice’, one hopeful would walk away from the show before they’d even set the week’s challenge.

Now we know that the candidate to walk was Aleksandra, she’s set the record straight, insisting that the reason she walked was not because she “couldn’t hack the process”.

Speaking to Digital Spy about her impromptu departure, she said: “I think it was a massive shock to everyone, and the initial reaction from Grainne and Lord Sugar was, ‘She left because she couldn’t hack the process’. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I’ve never been brought back into the final three, the tasks were actually pretty manageable, I knew what I was doing.”

Aleskandra continued: “There were two main things that I thought won’t work for me in that way. The first one was that there was a little bit of a blame culture there which creates an unnecessary amount of stress in people. I just don’t feel business has to be like that - I think it can work a lot more in a collaborative fashion.

“And the second thing really was that the process for me didn’t reflect a good work-life balance. The contact that I was actually allowed with my family was so limited to the point where it was completely unacceptable, unnecessary and a test that I just thought was completely irrelevant.

“I don’t see how severely limited contact with your family is a great business skill.”

However, she insisted she had no ill feelings towards Lord Sugar, adding: “That doesn’t mean Lord Sugar’s way is just so awful and so terrible. I think he’s got a very traditional way of managing and I’ve got a bit more of a modern way of doing things.”

Aleksandra is now the fourth contestant in UK ‘Apprentice’ history to walk away from the show, with Scott Saunders quitting last year after being torn apart by Lord Sugar in the boardroom.

In past years, Katie Hopkins also famously quit the show during her series (not that she ever goes ON AND ON ABOUT IT, though), while Adele Lock was forced to pull out due to a death in the family, during the very first series of the BBC show.

‘The Apprentice’ continues on Thursday (3 November) at 9pm on BBC One.