‘I wasn’t looking for love on The Apprentice but co-star swept me off my feet’

Harpreet Kaur Thakrar won the Apprentice three years ago but it turned out to be more than a business opportunity as she’s now married to one of her co-stars.

The entrepreneur, now 33, competed on the BBC show in 2022 and she secured a £250, 000 investment from Lord Sugar for her desserts brand Oh So Yum! in the final. She later bought back his shares and last year announced that she had left the business to pursue other opportunities.

Whilst a candidate on the Apprentice, Harpreet met her future husband Akshay Thakrar, now 32. They began their romance after appearing on the show and tied the knot last year following the news of their engagement in 2023.

As they approach their first wedding anniversary, Harpreet spoke to the Mirror about having unexpectedly fallen for her co-star. She teased: “I don’t think anybody goes into the Apprentice expecting to find a husband. I definitely didn’t. I wasn’t looking for love”. She added in our recent interview: “But then Akshay came along and swept me off my feet”.

Recalling being in the process together, Harpreet suggested that they were “both very focused” and “serious” about the opportunity. She said: “We almost didn’t interact that much while we were in the house. But we had a really nice friendly connection and had that respect for each other”.

She continued: “Funnily enough we were never on the same team until the final]where the finalists pick teammates to help them]. I picked Akshay because I just felt like I could trust him. And then, yeah, we almost didn’t speak and sort of didn’t have contact for months after the filming”.

The BBC Asian Network radio host said that the candidates “start talking again” when the show finally airs to discuss the episodes. She said: “We really started to connect and give time to each other. And then it all blossomed very, very quickly and within three months y’know we’re in a full blown relationship”. Harpreet commented: “We definitely built our relationship based on a foundation of friendship”.

Asked if he caught her eye during filming, Harpreet said: “I think I just had respect for him”. She however went on to tease that it was whilst watching Akshay be project manager in the very first task that she saw him in a different light.

She told us last week: “He actually caught my eye when I watched the show back with everyone else]when it aired]. When it was episode one, he was project manager and because I’d never worked on tasks with him, and because I’m such an ambitious driven person, when I saw him in]that role] on the first task, I was like ‘ hey, he’s my sort of guy'”.

Harpreet shared that it was “really strange” because her mother asked her at the time what she thought of Akshay. She said: “I completely dismissed it, even though, yeah, he did catch my eye. I just dismissed it because I didn’t just think anything too deep about it because I was so invested in the kind of professional aspect, but maybe it was there lingering in me somewhere and it just took some time to come out”. She later added: “I like the assertive side. He’s an assertive guy and I definitely respect that”.

The public speaker recently moved from West Yorkshire to London with Akshay ahead of some projects in the pipeline. She said: “I’ve got a really exciting business opportunity in the works as we speak. So I’m gonna get my head down for a few months and then hopefully I can reveal all”. She teased: “I’ve got quite a few exciting things coming up”.

The couple will be celebrating their wedding anniversary in June but Harpreet teased that they haven’t yet finalised any plans for the occasion. She told us: “He’s just said that he’s gonna take me to McDonald’s – he’s joking. Well, we had a beautiful, beautiful year last year]including having gone away for our honeymoon]. I’m sure we’ll do something really nice or we might just go on a nice little trip away again”.

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Source: Mirror