**WARNING: Spoilers are below
The winner of this year’s series of The Apprentice has been revealed after Lord Alan Sugar praised the ‘outstanding’ business proposals in the grand finale.
Thursday night’s episode of the BBC show saw Karishma Vijay crowned as winner as she battled it out against Pascha Myhill in an all-female final for Lord Sugar’s coveted investment.
The 28-year-old beauty business owner said she is ‘eternally grateful’ for landing a spot on the show, which she has hailed for turning her life around.
‘I actually can’t believe my life right now. Things keep happening. I’m just having a really good week,’ she said.
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‘I think people are happy to see me happy. A couple of years ago, I was single, I called off a wedding, ran away from it all – very dramatic, Bollywood movie-esque.
Having recently become engaged, she added: ‘Now, I’m here with my happy ending and also a lot of money in the bank account.’
Vijay, who is from Surrey, recounted the moment Lord Sugar told her she had won and would be receiving his £250,000 investment.
‘I was so blown away, so shocked – but I kept it very cool,’ she said.
‘Then, I got in my car and I was screaming. It was just insane – I can’t believe I’ve gone and done it after not having watched the show, I feel like that’s so cheeky.’
She said once the final is filmed, the contestants have ‘no idea who has won’ and must wait up to six months to find out the results.
‘Having all that waiting time, it was a lot of anxiety,’ she continued.
‘I’m just happy with the outcome. I’m so over the moon. And I’m just so happy to have all these opportunities now, it’s insane. My life has just really turned around.’
She also added: ‘The last three or four years, my life has been nothing short of a s*** storm. Everything that you can imagine going wrong went wrong, and it was like, “How am I surviving this?”
‘I felt incredibly unlucky. Then I found this show. I’m just so eternally grateful for all of it. Had I not hit rock bottom, it would have never been this unreal. I wouldn’t have probably been this grateful if it had come easily to me.’
Vijay will use Lord Sugar’s investment to expand her beauty business Kishkin.
Referring to her Indian background and her ‘very traditional’ family life, she said: ‘Being from the kind of community I’m from, they told my dad, “There’s no way you’re going to be able to raise these two girls as a man, as a single parent”.
‘My older sister is a doctor, and I’m the winner of The Apprentice. What more can a dad ask for?’
Vijay praised fellow finalist Myhill, saying: ‘I have so much love for Pascha. I think she’s incredibly inspiring and the most deserving.
‘A lot of people were questioning her place in the final and I just won’t have it. She deserves a seat at that table, 100%.’
The Apprentice is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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