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→‎[[Met Office]] firing: add ref - clear up salary - link and ref to field romp
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Although, Sir Alan argued his case with [[GMTV]] host [[Fiona Phillips]] in an interview with her, stating he was well aware of the rules.<ref name='GMTV'>{{cite episode |title=Sir Alan Sugar Interview |episodelink= |series=[[GMTV]] |station=[[ITV1]] |airdate=June 13 2007 |season=14}}</ref>
Although, Sir Alan argued his case with [[GMTV]] host [[Fiona Phillips]] in an interview with her, stating he was well aware of the rules.<ref name='GMTV'>{{cite episode |title=Sir Alan Sugar Interview |episodelink= |series=[[GMTV]] |station=[[ITV1]] |airdate=June 13 2007 |season=14}}</ref>


===[[Met Office]] firing===
===Met Office firing===
Reports out in late [[May 2007]] revealed that Katie was being investigated at her job in the [[Met Office]] due to her expensises claims, allegedly including a bill for dinner with ''Apprentice'' co-star [[Tre Azam]].<ref>[http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/sunday/tm_method=full%26objectid=19135255%26siteid=98487-name_page.html Katie & the exes factor]</ref>
Reports out in late [[May 2007]] revealed that Katie was being investigated at her job in the [[Met Office]] due to her expenses claims, allegedly including a bill for dinner with ''Apprentice'' co-star [[Tre Azam]].<ref>[http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/sunday/tm_method=full%26objectid=19135255%26siteid=98487-name_page.html Katie & the exes factor]</ref> It also emerged that she had another affair with a married man, this time with colleague Mark Cross, and was photographed topless with him in a Devon field in an ''"[[sexual intercourse|intimate embrace]]."''<ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=458231&in_page_id=1773 Apprentice villain caught in outdoor romp with married man}</ref>


On June 12 2007, the BBC and other news channels reported that Katie has recently been dismissed from her job with the Meteorological Office.<ref name='firedmet'>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6743877.stm Apprentice contender Katie fired ]</ref> A Met Office statement said that she did not meet the required standards to complete her probationary period, and confirmed that her performance on "''The Apprentice''" and confessions about her private life were a factor to her dismissal.<ref>[http://www.rte.ie/arts/2007/0612/theapprentice.html Katie Hopkins fired from real job]</ref> Katie is taking the organisation to a tribunal over the decision.<ref name='firedmet'/><!--The £90,000 she was on was her job BEFORE the Met Office, so the BBC story is confused here.-->
On June 12 2007, the BBC and other news channels reported that Katie has recently been dismissed from her job with the Meteorological Office.<ref name='firedmet'>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6743877.stm Apprentice contender Katie fired]</ref> A [[Met Office]] statement said that she did not meet the required standards to complete her probationary period, and confirmed that her performance on "''The Apprentice''" and confessions about her private life were a factor to her dismissal.<ref>[http://www.rte.ie/arts/2007/0612/theapprentice.html Katie Hopkins fired from real job]</ref> The spokesperson in the following Q&A also stated that Hopkins was on a salary of less than £90,000, although it later emerged that this was her claimed salary in the job before working for the Met Office. Hopkins later declared that she is taking the organisation to a tribunal over the decision.<ref name='firedmet'/><!--The £90,000 she was on was her job BEFORE the Met Office, so the BBC story is confused here.-->


Katie has stated that the media were informed of her dissmissal only an hour after she was<ref name='GMTV'/> and believes she has been used as a [[Scapegoat#Metaphor|scapegoat]].<ref>[http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/a60912/apprentice-star-katie-im-a-scapegoat.html 'Apprentice' star Katie: 'I'm a scapegoat']</ref>
Katie has stated that the media were informed of her dismissal only an hour after she was<ref name='GMTV'/> and believes she has been used as a [[Scapegoat#Metaphor|scapegoat]].<ref>[http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/a60912/apprentice-star-katie-im-a-scapegoat.html 'Apprentice' star Katie: 'I'm a scapegoat']</ref>


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 22:02, 13 June 2007

Katie Hopkins
File:HopkinsPA 468x640.jpg
Katie poses for her official BBC "Apprentice" publicity photo.
The image above is believed to be a replaceable non-free image. It will be deleted on 2007-06-19 if not determined to be irreplaceable. If you believe this image is not replaceable, follow the instructions on the image page to dispute this assertion.
Born1976
Exeter, Devon, England
Occupation(s)Reality TV participant, [1] Brand consultant[1] worked at the Met Office.[2]
ChildrenIndia and Poppy McKinney

Katie Hopkins (born 1976) is a Reality TV participant who appeared on the third series of the British version of The Apprentice. She withdrew from the show in week 11, and was not dismissed with Sir Alan Sugar's catchphrase You're Fired.[3]

Biography

Early Life

Born to Roy and Anona Hopkins in 1976,[4] Katie attended Exeter University, studying Politics and Economics[4], and has trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and claims she can ‘out press up’ most men.[5] Her goal is "to be CEO of a large global brand builder by 40".[6] She was once a stand-by contestant for the programme Big Brother.[7] She once called Terminal 4 at Heathrow Airport her home due to spending so much time travelling around the world and has worked for organisations such as Guinness, Smirnoff, Moët et Chandon, Reuters, Thomson Financial and Barclays.[8]

Romantic Interests

It was at university which she began a romantic relationship with fellow student Alan Hickman which lasted until 2001.[4] Katie was also "close" to work colleague Paul Collins during her relationship with Hickman.[9] Paul's wife Mel found out about the affair, and Paul decided to stay with his family. [9] Katie later dumped Alan Hickman for her boss, Damien McKinney.[9] He was a father of three and 15 years her senior.[4] The couple left Britain to live in New York; it was here in which their daughter India was born in 2004.[9] They returned to Britain shortly after India's birth, it was during the following year that they were married and their second daughter Poppy was born.[9]

Katie re-kindled her romance with Paul Collins upon returning home.[4] Although, Mel Collins found out about both this new affair and the fact that she was expecting another child.[9] Mel then separated from Paul and has said that she would like to get back together with him.[9] Katie and Paul then separated.[9]

While filming The Apprentice, Katie formed a relationship with fellow contestant Paul Callaghan. There have been various conflicting reports regarding whether the couple had sexual intercourse whilst participating on the programme. While reports originally suggested that the couple romped in the attic of the house in which the candidates were living,[10] Paul originally confirmed that they didn't have sex,[11] but later changed his statement when confirming that they had made love outdoors.[12]

After filming The Apprentice, Katie took a job at the Met Office in Exeter.[13] It is here that she met Mark Cross, a married design manager.[14] The couple met at Exeter St Davids railway station on May 25th 2007 and later went to a local pub.[14] It was from here that they went into a field, stripped naked, and made love to each other.[15] This was widely reported in the tabloid press,[14][4][16] but Mark's wife Ruth revealed that she already knew of the affair.[16] Katie's lover and former Apprentice candidate Paul Callaghan revealed that he found out about Katie's affair with Mark by seeing them having sex.[12]

The Apprentice

Hopkins was selected from over 10,000 people to be one of the final 16 candidates in The Apprentice.[17] The series, which began on the 28th March 2007, received over four million viewers for its opening episode.[18] She hit the headlines as part of the first on-screen romantic relationship to feature on The Apprentice with fellow candidate Paul Callaghan.[19] She rejected Sir Alan Sugar's offer of a place in the final episode of the programme, due to problems regarding childcare of her daughters, and walked at the end of the penultimate task.[20] The episode gained 6.2 million viewers, while the following You're Fired! episode was watched by 3.1 million.[21]

Comments and views

Katie became notable on the programme for her derisive comments toward other contestants. These include calling Naomi Lay a dog,[22] and expressing overt class issues with fellow contestant Adam Hosker's North England background.[23]

Hopkins also expressed contempt for fellow contestant Kristina Grimes[24] who was considered her rival whilst on the show. She mocked the choice of clothes and fondness of fake tan of her fellow candidate[14] and compared her to a Limpet.[3] Katie also accused her of trying to turn The Apprentice into "The Kristina Show".[25] Other insults used include calling Kristina a "wench with a forked tongue".[26]

Her insults, however, were not limited to her fellow contestants Hopkins also mocked viewers of TV shopping channels, maternity leave,[27] fat people[28] and those with the names Mavis and Derek[3]

Response

Katie has become something of a hate figure during her time on the programme, especially on internet forums.[29] Although, Sir Alan Sugar has jumped to her defence.[30]

The tabloid newspapers have also criticised her, comparing her to such fictional characters as Cruella De Vil,[31] Widow Twankey,[32] Darth Vader, J.R. Ewing[33] and The Wicked Witch of the West.[34] She has also been compared to real people, such as Ruth Badger,[35] Princess Diana, Simon Cowell, Princess Anne and Margaret Thatcher.[36] They have also made fun of Katie's red cheeks.[32]

Love, Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis expressed his distate for Hopkins jokingly vowing to kill Katie whilst accepting his Fellowship award at the 2007 BAFTA awards. [37] Fellow contestants of Katie have questioned why she took part in the programme,[3] while fellow candidate Lohit Kalburgi claims he didn't want to be "the bitch", making a reference to Katie.[3] Simon Ambrose, Katie’s fellow Apprentice candidate, slammed Katie’s much-publicised romantic life as he came from a “broken home” and rival Kristina Grimes said the Katie only left the programme on her own accord as “she would have eventually got the axe”.[38]

Friends of Ms. Hopkins claim that she was only participating in the programme in order to start a media career.[4]

Aftermath

Katie, like all other Apprentice candidates, appeared on the accompanying spin-off programme The Apprentice: You're Fired!. Upon making her entrance onto the stage, she received a mixed response from the crowd with some audience members booing and others cheering.[3] When being shown video clips of Katie's comments about other candidates, Katie laughed and dismissed them as "letting off steam".[3] Michelle Mone, boss of lingerie company Ultimo who was guesting on the episode, verbally blasted Katie by calling her "exceptionally selfish" making remarks such as "You've given businesswomen a bad name".[39] The episode continued with both women making offensive comments to each other.[40]

Once leaving the programme, Katie said that she was backing Simon Ambrose to win The Apprentice, and revealed she wanted to smash a glass ceiling over the head of other finalist and rival Kristina Grimes. [41]

Katie signed two exclusive deals to sell her story; a newspaper deal with The News of the World and a magazine deal with Emap, the company behind heat and Grazia magazines. [42]

In her News of the World interview, Katie played down media reports that she had broken up marriages, but did reveal that she has had 10 lovers and had made love to a man in the barracks at Sandhurst Military Academy.[43] She also told the paper that Michelle Mone, who had criticised her on The Apprentice: You’re Fired!, was probably “just happy to be out of the underwear factory for the day”.[44] She also told the paper that she lost her virginity aged 17 after leaving a convent school and that she hopes to be a Member of Parliament for the British Conservative Party, like Margaret Thatcher.[43]

The day after Katie's final Apprentice episode aired, two large news stories emerged about her. Firstly, her step daughter Charlotte McKinney told the Daily Mail that Katie had ruined her family and driven the teenager to anorexia by sending her cards with stick men drawn on them. [45] Another Mail article reported that fans of the programme were accusing the BBC of fixing her walk-out.[46]

Katie revealed in an interview with BBC Radio Kent that she had great respect for Sir Alan Sugar, and said that she believed that she would have won the programme had she been in the final episode. She also said that the media's attitudes towards her did not affect her, but did affect her family. [35]

When talking to Fiona Phillips in an interview which aired on GMTV Today on the morning of the day that the final Apprentice episode, Katie stated that, had she accepted Sir Alan's offer of a place in the final, she would have won the contest whoever she was up against.[47]

Katie told BBC Radio 1 that she has not yet ruled out a media career. [48]

Sexism Controversy

Alan Sugar was initially accused of sexism by his critics, such as the Trade Union Congress, The Equal Opportunities Commission and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, due to his questioning of Katie about her childcare arrangments.[49] He has been accused of breaking the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act[50] This story created a storm of controversy and was well documented in the media.[51][52][53][54]

Although, Sir Alan argued his case with GMTV host Fiona Phillips in an interview with her, stating he was well aware of the rules.[55]

Met Office firing

Reports out in late May 2007 revealed that Katie was being investigated at her job in the Met Office due to her expenses claims, allegedly including a bill for dinner with Apprentice co-star Tre Azam.[56] It also emerged that she had another affair with a married man, this time with colleague Mark Cross, and was photographed topless with him in a Devon field in an "intimate embrace."[57]

On June 12 2007, the BBC and other news channels reported that Katie has recently been dismissed from her job with the Meteorological Office.[38] A Met Office statement said that she did not meet the required standards to complete her probationary period, and confirmed that her performance on "The Apprentice" and confessions about her private life were a factor to her dismissal.[58] The spokesperson in the following Q&A also stated that Hopkins was on a salary of less than £90,000, although it later emerged that this was her claimed salary in the job before working for the Met Office. Hopkins later declared that she is taking the organisation to a tribunal over the decision.[38]

Katie has stated that the media were informed of her dismissal only an hour after she was[55] and believes she has been used as a scapegoat.[59]

References

  1. ^ a b This is not Big Bro
  2. ^ 2007 Set to be World's Warmest Year - UK Met Office
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "The Apprentice: You're Fired!". Season 2. Episode 11. June 6 2007. BBC Two. {{cite episode}}: Check date values in: |airdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |episodelink= and |serieslink= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g So that's why it's called Asset Stripping: the naked ambition of the Apprentice
  5. ^ Katie Hopkins
  6. ^ The Apprentice Series 3 - Who's Who
  7. ^ 'Apprentice' star Katie 'applied for Big Brother'
  8. ^ Met Office 'Barometer' Magazine
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Cold Katie wrecked two marriages
  10. ^ Paul: You're fired, Katie
  11. ^ Apprentice show flirting 'robbed me of my chance'
  12. ^ a b I caught two-timing Katie bed-handed
  13. ^ Katie and the exes factor
  14. ^ a b c d Is Katie the biggest bitch on TV?
  15. ^ Katie Hopkins Topless: Apprentice Caught In Sex Romp Outdoors
  16. ^ a b Katie romps with married man NO3
  17. ^ The sweet smell of success: Sugar's 'Apprentice' line-up
  18. ^ Weekly Viewing Summary-Terrestrial Top 30-BBC1-Week ending 01/04/2007
  19. ^ Apprentices in love
  20. ^ Apprentice finalist reveals why she told Sir Alan: YOU'RE fired!
  21. ^ The Apprentice beats Diana show
  22. ^ Naomi: My sex video shame
  23. ^ Sacked Adam turns on rival Katie
  24. ^ Kat Fight
  25. ^ "The Apprentice". Season 3. Episode 10. May 30 2007. BBC Two. {{cite episode}}: Check date values in: |airdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |episodelink= and |serieslink= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help)
  26. ^ Katie's in the red again
  27. ^ Last night's TV
  28. ^ Call me crazy ... but doesn't Katie Hopkins deserve to be Sir Alan's Apprentice?
  29. ^ Digital Spy Forums-KATIE: The ULTIMATE Apprentice VILLAN!!!
  30. ^ Sir Alan tells Jonathan about The Apprentice and fame
  31. ^ Katie Hopkins
  32. ^ a b How Henry thing goes!
  33. ^ Pearly Grates
  34. ^ 3 Out in Face-off
  35. ^ a b Katie Hopkins BBC Radio Kent Interview
  36. ^ What will Apprentice villainess Katie Hopkins do next? Oh, tut, tut!
  37. ^ Casualty stuns soap rivals to net first BAFTA
  38. ^ a b c Apprentice contender Katie fired
  39. ^ Katie quits The Apprentice in a storm of maternal feelings... and her best quotes
  40. ^ The Diamond Store blog
  41. ^ First time I've told a man 'no'
  42. ^ Apprentice star signs News of the World deal
  43. ^ a b I’m 10 out of 10 in bed!
  44. ^ Apprentice Katie gives her straight video verdict on Michelle from You're Fired
  45. ^ Apprentice Katie Hopkins 'wrecked my family'
  46. ^ Apprentice fans accuse the BBC of rigging Katie's walkout
  47. ^ "Katie Hopkins Interview". GMTV. Season 14. June 13 2007. ITV1. {{cite episode}}: Check date values in: |airdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |episodelink= (help)
  48. ^ Radio 1 Newsbeat-Katie Hopkins Interview
  49. ^ Sir Alan Sugar accused of sexism
  50. ^ Sugar faces sexism row as ex-Apprentice sells story
  51. ^ Katie gone at last, but was the firing squad fair?
  52. ^ Sugar accused of sexism after apprentice quits
  53. ^ Sir Alan accused of sexism towards Apprentice villain Katie
  54. ^ All fired up
  55. ^ a b "Sir Alan Sugar Interview". GMTV. Season 14. June 13 2007. ITV1. {{cite episode}}: Check date values in: |airdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |episodelink= (help)
  56. ^ Katie & the exes factor
  57. ^ [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=458231&in_page_id=1773 Apprentice villain caught in outdoor romp with married man}
  58. ^ Katie Hopkins fired from real job
  59. ^ 'Apprentice' star Katie: 'I'm a scapegoat'

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Katie_Hopkins&oldid=138002086"