[Red Moon]

REVEALE SECRET TORMENT OF APPRENTICE TV BITCH

Apprentice star Jenny Celerier has revealed how a drugcrazed lover held her hostage in a caravan for 24 hours and threatened to set her on fire with hot oil.

Jenny, 36, made the dramatic confession before entering the hit BBC TV reality show.

Millions of viewers see the flame-haired sales manager as domineering and bitchy - but secretly she is haunted by a dark past in which SHE was the victim of terrifying abuse.

Recalling her ordeal as a young woman, Jenny confessed: "This man - my boyfriend - got into drugs and became jealous and possessive, torturing me both mentally and physically.

"In one 24-hour period he held me captive in a caravan and threatened to pour oil on me and set me on fire with a lighter.

"I was physically assaulted before I managed to escape.

"When someone is doing that to you it's a terrifying experience. I really thought I was going to die."

Single mum Jenny opened her heart to a close pal just days before she was selected with 15 other candidates to compete for a £100,000-a-year job working for tycoon Sir Alan Sugar.

Jenny, who now lives in Leicester, told her friend: "I was young and naive when I fell for this man.

"At first I thought he was the person I'd be spending the rest of my life with but how wrong was I?

"He started drinking and taking drugs. I was working all hours in shops to pay for food and heating.

"Soon he started becoming abusive. I'd try and stand my ground but that would make things worse.

"It all culminated in one weekend in February when he just went ballistic.

"He locked me in the caravan and pinned me up against the wall by my throat.

"I could feel all the air draining from my lungs as I gasped for breath.

"At the last minute he let go and I slumped to the floor. What felt even worse was the mental torture he put me though.

"Grabbing me by the neck he threatened to cover me in oil and set me on fire with his lighter. He was like a man possessed, shouting and screaming at me.

"I just crumpled to the floor in a ball to protect myself from his fists."

Jenny continued to her pal: "He was out of it on booze and drugs.

"In the end he collapsed on to the bed so I grabbed my clothes and fled. It was the middle of winter and absolutely freezing. I ended up finding a halfway house and dossed down with other women who had fled violent relationships."

Too terrified to report her lover to the police, Jenny slept on friends' floors before moving out of the area to escape his clutches.

Even now Jenny is so terrified of her ex she refuses to name him for fear of a revenge attack.

Jenny went on to raise her son Simon on her own after another boyfriend walked out when she was five months pregnant. She told her pal: "He's never ever seen Simon or paid any money towards his upbringing.

It's something I've never talked about with anyone. His name is not on the birth certificate.

"We'd been together for a year and a half. My parents very much disagreed with me having a boyfriend who was a notorious bad boy.

"I just became deeply in love as you do at that age not really realising the reality of the world. I was very naive. I lost my virginity to him."

Jenny later met and married an ex-US airman.

Last month, The People told how they split and hubby Dean McLellan secretly wed another woman in America while still hitched to Jenny.

Jenny added: "These are the experiences that have made me so determined to make a success of my life and never have to rely on another man. I've not spoken to anyone about all of this for 15 years.

"I don't deny I'm ruthless and money-focused but you would be too if you raised a child on your own.

"When I fled my violent lover I went into a special home for people that have nothing and I don't ever want to have to go back there. It's just a horrible, horrible story."

The former British Gas telesales girl reduced fellow contestant Lucinda Ledgerwood to tears in an early episode and annoyed all the other women in the show with her arrogant behaviour.

But her friend said: "This woman has balls. Anyone who has come through what she has to make a success of her life deserves a big pat on the back."

Source:Sunday People