Yahoo News Shock as Apprentice stars reveal they knew each other as children
The Apprentice's Dr Paul Midha and Rachel Woolford went to the same school
The Apprentice's Dr Paul Midha and Rachel Woolford knew each other as children years before competing on the show.
It's a small world as both Midha and Woolford went to the same school and their parents even lived on the same street while they were growing up.
Even though both stars are from Leeds, fans will have had no idea about their secret connection. Viewers will be surprised to learn this as they do not give away at any point in the series that they knew each other before the show.
Coincidentally too both Dr Midha and Woolford make the final five and they endure the gruelling interviews episode. Woolford has gone onto make the final and Dr Midha let slip the connection while congratulating her in his exit interview with Yahoo.
Dr Midha told Yahoo News: "A big shout out to Rachel going into the final, only because we went to the same school together.
"We used to catch the same school bus together. Our parents lived on the same lane together. So to see her journey from being in school to going into the final of the Apprentice, I couldn't be more proud of her.
"We were different years, so we kind of knew of each other. And then obviously, when we saw each other on The Apprentice and we were like 'wait what? I recognise you.' But, yeah, that was nice."
Despite the childhood connection, Dr Midha would love to see award-winning pie maker Phil Turner win the series. "For me, I'm definitely team Phil," he admitted. "Because we shared a room for eight weeks. We're were in the same sub team quite a bit as well."
He added: "What I think people don't realise is, a lot of people in his position maybe would have cracked or broken. He was so resilient, so resilient. And that, for me, is the number one quality of any entrepreneur. Because the entrepreneurial journey will never a straight road.
"It's always ups and downs, but he came into every single task, refreshed, ready to go, giving him giving it his all, So I'll back him on the on the other side as well."
Elsewhere in the interview, Dr Midha shared his surprise that Lord Sugar turned down his second business proposal. After the interviews stage, he knew that The Apprentice boss was more interested in his current dentist business. It was a sleepless night for him before the boardroom as he hatched a new plan which he hoped would see him and Lord Sugar work on a second or third dentist practice together.
However, Lord Sugar wanted 50% of his current practice. This was not something he could give away, especially as it would be "disappointing and heartbreaking" to his family. He told Yahoo: "I gave Lord Alan Sugar a fair offer when I was in the boardroom. I said, ‘You know what? I’ve got a second dental practice, at the time I was about to get, we got it now. We can go into that together or I even said we can get a third practice together which is a squat one where you build it from scratch.’ It costs about £200,000-£250,000 to create. He said, ‘Oh so I’ve got options.’ I was like, ‘Yeah you’ve got options.’ I thought I was in a good position.
"Obviously we came out and when we came back in, Lord Alan Sugar said, ‘Just to be clear I want everything for 50%.’ I was surprised and that was probably the longest second of my life. At that moment, I thought my family had seen me on my journey. When I took on my first dental practice, I had £100 left in the bank account. I’ve worked so hard to build it to where it is now. To almost devalue everything I’ve done in that moment, it would have been very disappointing and heartbreaking to them.
"I wanted to win and I would want nothing more than Lord Sugar's mentorship because I respect him so much. He's one of the most successful people in the UK in my eyes. It wasn't an easy decision but I felt like I made the right one for myself."
