[Red Moon]

What Katie did - and who she did along the way

Appearing on The Apprentice, Katie Hopkins polarised public opinion with her scathing remarks about fellow contestants. More recently, Hopkins appeared on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here with people such as singer Cerys Matthews, PR legend Lynne Franks and eventual winner, actor Christopher Biggins

Slim and unrepentant, with much-tossed blonde hair and a ready laugh, Hopkins, 32, agrees that 2007 has been quite a year. 'Fabulous! It's added so many dimensions to my life,' she says. 'Not all of them good - but I wouldn't change it for a minute.'

Hailing from Devon, Hopkins had a military (Sandhurst) and business background by the time she appeared on The Apprentice. With her Thatcherite attitude, blue eyeliner and caustic put-downs, she swiftly became a national love-to-hate figure, to the point where, on stage at the Baftas, Richard Curtis joked that he'd like to kill her.

'I was the superbitch,' says Hopkins. 'This Eighties shoulder-padded monster.' A pantomime villain? 'Yes - I just wish I'd had one of those enormous black capes to swoosh.'
At the point of reaching the final, Hopkins abruptly withdrew, thus sidestepping the dreaded 'you're fired'. She says now that, as a mother (of two young daughters from her former marriage), she needed more time than she'd been given to commit. 'I didn't have it organised in my head - next week, you're in Brentwood, go!' At the time Alan Sugar was criticised for sexism when he asked questions about her childcare arrangements, but Hopkins doesn't agree: 'Employers have got a right to know what you're up to.'

What was her opinion of Sugar? Hopkins laughs: 'I think Sir Alan is witty, a brilliant actor and a consummate professional at doing The Apprentice - a caricature, almost, of a successful businessman.'

After The Apprentice, Hopkins faced a media frenzy. She lost her job (at the Met Office), newspapers heaved with commentary for and against her, paparazzi camped outside her parents' house. 'I had moments of complete panic,' she admits.

A lot of public disapproval stemmed from Hopkins' stated penchant for married men. It didn't help when she was pictured having sex in a field with married lover Mark Cross: 'We thought we'd found privacy but we'd found the front cover of the People.' She and Cross are still together, but Hopkins says that the photo devastated her parents.

'I've been called fat, that I looked like Shrek, so many things. You become resilient. But you're never resilient to your mum in tears. Well I'm not.' But Hopkins is not anti-tabloid: 'They basically write the truth. I have had a fairly fruitful career with other people's husbands. I have got more skeletons than the Natural History.'

So why did Hopkins brave the jungle (and further tabloid scrutiny) for IACGMOOH? 'I thought it would be outdoorsy and challenging, and that floats my boat.' A self-defined 'male girl', she bonded with chef John Burton Race and ex-footballer Rodney Marsh, as well as veteran US supermodel Janice Dickinson. 'Janice is an amazing woman and I hope they build statues to her in LA one day.'

Hopkins' least favourite person was PR guru Lynne Franks. 'Lynne came from PR - she made a lot of money being tough. Now she wants to be spiritual so she's built this hippy feminine image - and it's about wearing Velcro-ed penises so that we can understand what our male sides are about. I think it's bollocks.'

Wasn't Franks rather bullied in the camp (notably by Burton Race and Marsh)? 'I hope she was,' says Hopkins. 'I hope she was bullied at school, to be frank.' But shouldn't the women have stuck together? 'No,' retorts Hopkins. 'I loved every minute of it.' In the end she was voted off second, which didn't surprise her. 'I don't have a fan base; I have a hate base.'

So what will Katie do next? When she left The Apprentice, Sugar called her 'unemployable' but Hopkins says she divides her time between consultancy and public speaking, and sees herself earning 'six figures' in Tokyo by the end of next year.

Then there are the media forays - radio presenting, writing, giving interviews like these: 'It's so quick-witted,' says Hopkins. 'Curveballs all the time, I love it.' Would she do a reality hat-trick and go on Big Brother? 'Hmm, I'll end up as a faux-celebrity if I'm not careful.' Hopkins feels 2007 was not just a good year, it was a life-changing one. 'In my professional and personal life I couldn't have had more change, and I embraced all of it.'

Source: Observer

[Jackie]

A lot of public disapproval stemmed from Hopkins' stated penchant for married men. It didn't help when she was pictured having sex in a field with married lover Mark Cross: 'We thought we'd found privacy but we'd found the front cover of the People.' She and Cross are still together, but Hopkins says that the photo devastated her parents.

Well it couldn't have been very private if they were caught on camera.