STEPMUM FROM HELL
APPRENTICE snob Katie Hopkins has been labelled a "fame-hungry gold-digger" by her teenage stepdaughter.
In an exclusive interview with the Mirror, pretty Charlie McKinney, whose dad Damian married Katie in 2004, claims The Apprentice man-eater was the "stepmum-from-hell".
And she's glad that viewers of the BBC1 show have been left in no doubt about how "bitchy" Katie can be.
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"No one ever saw that side of her apart from us," says Charlie. "I think she went on the show to make herself a Simon Cowell 'Mr Nasty' figure but it has blown up in her face. She definitely has a cruel sense of humour."
Millions of viewers last night saw Katie, 31, selected for the final two in Sir Alan Sugar's hunt for a £100,000-a-year apprentice... only for her to change her mind and sensationally quit.
She'd already enraged fans of the show by having trysts with a fellow contestant, damning northerners and slagging off finalist Kristina Grimes for wearing a short skirt.
The mum-of-two also admitted last week: "When I found out I was pregnant I was in shock. I thought I'd do the New York marathon and said to myself, 'If I'm meant to be pregnant I will be after this'.
"I'm very different in my life as a mother to my life in business or my life as a partner."
Charlie, 18, reveals that Katie has been desperate for fame for years - ever since she auditioned for the first series of Big Brother.
"She went for BB and was a stand-by," says Charlie, who was bridesmaid at Damian and Katie's wedding. "She's very into the idea of celebrity. I wouldn't be surprised to see her on the next Celebrity Big Brother."
Charlie, who lives in Exmouth, Devon, with her mum Tina, brother Alex, 17, and 10-year-old sister Flora, met Katie in September 2003.
Tina had discovered wealthy Damian, her husband of 19 years, was having an affair with the blonde businesswoman after finding their London flat full of Katie's clothes.
Damian, 46, is the MD of a business consultancy firm in Devon - and Katie was one of his employees.
Not long after her parents' split, Charlie developed an eating disorder.
SHE dropped three stone to 6st 7lbs in just two months - and she believes it was caused by the split and starting boarding school.
"It was a cry for help," says Charlie, who is currently taking A-levels in English, history and economics. "I suppose, looking back, I thought if I lost lots of weight they would see there was something wrong."
But Charlie claims Katie was far from sympathetic and, instead, made snide remarks about her not eating. Charlie says: "When I was really thin, I remember Dad and Katie having a takeaway and Katie said, 'Of course, Charlie won't eat any of it, she'll just sit outside.'
"She'd say, 'You really should do some sport, go and get muscles.' She thought she could just get me to snap out of it."
Katie was just as unkind to her stepson, Alex, calling him "lazy" and "a lump" if she saw him watching TV. And, according to Charlie, she had little maternal instinct when she gave birth to Damian's daughter, India, in 2004. Charlie claims: "She said to me, 'I know everyone is supposed to love their baby and think that they're the most beautiful in the world but I think babies are *******ing ugly."
Charlie claims that Katie left most of their upbringing to a full-time nanny. And she says she watched her strong father turn into a meek man during his relationship with Katie.
"He was a completely different person," says Charlie, who hopes to work in her dad's business. "He used to be the man of the house but, in their relationship, she wore the trousers. He became very meek.
"She used to try to make him really young and trendy."
And on one occasion, when Damian took his daughter shopping for new clothes, he told her to hide the packages from jealous Katie.
Charlie says: "All my clothes were falling off me so he picked me up from my school in Bristol so we could buy new clothes.
"When we got back, he said, 'Would you mind putting the bags under the rug?' He said that it would be much easier if Katie didn't see them."
Damian and Katie split last January - much to Charlie's delight. "They did row a lot. It never seemed like a happy relationship. I doubt very much if she was ever in love with him."
Since splitting from Damian and going on to make a name for herself in the show, Katie has been linked with two married men - as well as fellow Apprentice contestant Paul Callaghan.
The first was father-of-two Paul Collin, 41, a handsome ex-Marine she met while working in Damian's consultancy firm in Devon. His three-year marriage broke down when his wife Mel found saucy texts from Katie on his mobile.
Next up was ex-army lieutenant and fellow contestant Paul. The pair started a fling during filming of The Apprentice and when Sir Alan discovered it, he blew his top.
But Paul dumped bed-hopping Katie after he walked in on her getting down to business with her latest squeeze, 43-year-old Mark Cross.
And just last week, she was pictured in a topless al-fresco romp with Mark, who she met last year while working at the Met Office HQ in Devon.
Mark's devastated wife, Ruth, 50, is now reportedly trying to save their seven-year marriage.
"I really don't know what men see in her," says Charlie. "Maybe it's her confidence - that whole 'I know what I want and where I'm going' thing. Personally, I can't see it at all."
Katie was yesterday unavailable for comment, with her representatives saying: "Katie is likely to sell her story to someone and hence won't be commenting."
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