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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Rutland
Posts: 25,358
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Rutland
Posts: 25,358
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The Apprentice - The Apprentice rat: I\'m ruined (and related threads merged)
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The Apprentice rat: I'm ruined APPRENTICE flop Ian Stringer bragged on telly he couldn't even SAY the word loser—but now he's on the verge of losing EVERYTHING and EVERYONE except the blonde air hostess he left his wife and kids for
The penniless 26-year-old is virtually ruined after walking out on wife Kirsty last year, three weeks after she gave birth to their son.
Their home, where Kirsty still lives with their two young children, is set to be REPOSSESSED—because Ian quit his job for the TV show and cannot afford the mortgage...or anything else.
His old bosses don't want him back, relatives have disowned him, and he fears his son and daughter will have to move hundreds of miles away to live with Kirsty's family.
Yesterday Ian admitted to News of the World: "It has been hell.
"I'm on the edge of bankruptcy. I can't pay my mortgage, I can't pay off my credit card, I owe my solicitor £600 but I can't even pay my £200 electricity bill. My home will be repossessed if we don't sell it fast.
"I've got zero money in the bank, an empty fridge, and just £15 in my pocket. That's all I'm worth."
The final blow was getting fired from The Apprentice last Wednesday after just two weeks when he messed up a pizza night.
He was so convinced he would be Sir Alan Sugar's next £100,000-a-year recruit that he quit his £30,000 IT job and boasted: "There are two kinds of people in the world—winners and...I don't know how to spell the other word. I can't say it."
But last week 7.3 million BBC1 viewers watched Sir Alan Sugar slamming teamleader Ian for blaming everyone except himself.
Cheat
Ian said: "I was absolutely gutted when Sir Alan told me, ‘You're fired.' I believed I would win—and would be able to clear my debts. I really thought Kevin Shaw was going to be fired because he messed up as head chef."
But though he's made as big a mess of his private life and his finances as he has of his Apprentice task, it turns out that's not Ian's fault either!
Last month we revealed how Ian walked out on childhood sweetheart Kirsty, leaving her with a toddler and a newborn baby to be with Angela Rawson, 23. who'd been a guest at their wedding.
But yesterday Ian blamed KIRSTY for the break-up and slated her for branding him a love rat—despite admitting he first kissed new girlfriend Angela when his wife had just given birth.
He explained: "The only reason I left Kirsty was because she broke my heart. She twice cheated on me before we got married and lived a 10-year lie. If I'm a rat, she's a double cheat."
In fact, even Ian losing his virginity was nothing to do with him!
He said: "I was 15 and Kirsty was 17 when she seduced me and I lost my virginity. My dad Phil and stepmum Karen ran a pub called The Fox in Harpenden, Herts. Kirsty, who went to my school, was a kitchen assistant.
"One night we sneaked up to my bedroom, which had a Pamela Anderson picture on the wall, and started kissing. One thing led to another and we had sex for the first time.
"I fell so in love that I knew I was going to marry Kirsty."
But a few months later Ian claims he was shattered when school pals told him Kirsty cheated on him at a Christmas party.
"I was devastated and confronted Kirsty outside the sixth-form common room and she flatly denied it," he said.
Later she moved in with Ian and his family when his dad got a new pub in Surrey. Ian said: "One night we had a stupid row and Kirsty left to stay with her mum in Luton. For a day she refused to answer my calls and when I got through I asked her where she'd been. She said: ‘I went for a drink, I wasn't in control and he took advantage of me. But it meant nothing.' I didn't know who the bloke was but I was so hurt I hung up."
The couple made up and Ian asked her again if she'd cheated on him at the Christmas party. He said: "She flatly denied it. I again accepted her word and we ended up renting a flat together."
Ian proposed to Kirsty on Christmas Day, 2000. They wed in an £18,000 ceremony at Brocket Hall Stately Home, Herts, on April 10, 2004.
Among the guests was Angela who used to work with Ian at a Dixons store in Hemel Hempstead. "Angela became a good friend and I invited her to my wedding with her boyfriend."
But after ten years and two children, Ian still couldn't get that suspected schoolboy betrayal out of his head.
"Years later, when Kirsty was eight months pregnant, I saw a programme on TV about adultery," he said. "I asked her again if she had cheated on me when I was at school.
"I was absolutely devastated when she finally admitted she DID cheat on me at the Christmas party. Afterwards Kirsty kept calling to apologise, insisting it was all alcohol-induced and wouldn't happen again. But I couldn't get over the fact that my wife had cheated on me twice. It was a life-changing moment. I lost my respect for her and I didn't trust her any more."
A couple of weeks later Ian met up with Angela in a park and told her his marriage was in trouble.
He recalled: "She told me her relationship with her boyfriend was not going well. We were suddenly drawn together and ended up kissing.
"I didn't feel guilty about my wife after what she'd done behind my back. I felt justified. The only person I felt sorry for was Angela's boyfriend."
Slap
A week later, in January 2007, Ian left Kirsty. She had recently given birth to their son Owen, and they have a daughter Isla, now two. Ian said: "I broke down in tears and told Kirsty I had feelings for someone else. She asked me: 'Who?'
"I told her it was Angela. Kirsty was distraught, slapped me around the face and told me: ‘Pack your bags and leave.'
"I grabbed my football-kit bag with just enough clothes for a few days, and went into hiding at a friend's house." But Ian ended up living rough—sleeping in his car then in a freezing, dirty loft above his office. He said: "I felt like a tramp." A couple of months later, he says, he and Angela became a couple. He recalled: "We went to an Indian restaurant then back to a friend's place.
"He told us we could stay in the spare room, and we made love for the first time. The passion between us was red hot. It wasn't just sex, we made love—it was perfect.
"But afterwards I did feel awkward. I was still married. I'm deeply in love with Angela though and we would like to one day get our own place and spend our future together."
Kirsty, 28, and Ian are now in the process of getting divorced. He said: "I owe my solicitor hundreds of pounds for all the stupid-a**e letters that Kirsty's solicitor sent me using legal aid.
"I've had to confess adultery, because I had sex while I was married, even though our relationship was over.
"That p***es me off, especially as I'm told she is now dating an ex-Army man who drives a Porsche."
Kirsty has been forced to put their three-bedroom house in Newport Pagnell, Bucks up for sale, while Ian is renting a one-bedroom flat in Flitwick, Beds.
Ian said: "We clocked up £7,000 on our credit card, decorating and furnishing our home, and basically living beyond our means. I can't pay it off now.
"Recently we accepted £210,000 for the house—exactly what we paid for it. It's £20,000 less than its valuation and the sale has fallen through three times. If we don't sell it soon it will be repossessed.
"I now fear Kirsty will take the children away from me and join her family in Scotland. I would be absolutely devastated if that happened."
Angry
Yesterday Kirsty said hit back: "Ian has already shown how he lies when it suits him to do so. He has done it on national television and is doing it again."
Ian's mum and dad have been giving him handouts to try to help with the mortgage payments. But his grandparents are so angry with him for giving up on his marriage they have disowned him.
Ian admitted: "If I was knocked over by a car tomorrow I know they would not come to my funeral."
And his woes look set to continue, as his former bosses at computer firm Maxon will not take him back. He said: "After leaving The Apprentice I hoped I would get my old job back. But the company told me I had been replaced and there was no job available."
Ian has been working as a sports commentator for BBC Three Counties Radio —causing an outcry that a Beeb worker could be in BBC1's The Apprentice.
But Ian, who gets around £20,000-a-year for the radio work, said: "My contract is due to expire in the next three weeks and I could then be unemployed."
Despite everything, Ian still insists he is NOT a loser. He explained: "Leaving my marital home was far worse than leaving the Apprentice, because I have two children I adore. But I have no regrets about what's happened.
"I have cried myself to sleep 100 times and my life has been turned upside down. I will pull myself up—I've just got to keep my sense of humour.
And Angela added: "He's NOT a loser. I love Ian, I want to marry him, I want one day to have his children and I want to spend the rest of my life with him."
Ian said: "I still consider myself a winner—I'll bounce back and prove it.
"I don't feel like a...I still can't say that word!"
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Source: News of the World
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13-04-2008, 06:09 AM
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