{"id":378973,"date":"2026-04-02T22:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/378973\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T22:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:51:12","slug":"the-apprentice-candidate-sensationally-quits-after-string-of-task-failures-storming-out-before-lord-sugar-can-fire-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/378973\/","title":{"rendered":"The Apprentice candidate sensationally QUITS after string of task failures – storming out before Lord Sugar can fire him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apprentice candidate Kieran McCartney quit the show after back-to-back task failures – storming out of the boardroom before Lord Sugar<\/a>\u00a0could fire him.<\/p>\n

Kieran, 27, lost the latest challenge, to create a pet lifestyle brand and product, as well as his deal with Lord Sugar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During last week’s episode, the estate agent struck a dramatic ‘win or walk’ agreement with the business mogul, 79, after landing on the losing team in a live shopping channel task.<\/p>\n

He said: ‘I’ve been project manager twice on the same task, if I stay in this process, I would like to be the project manager on task 10 to prove to you what I can do. If I lose, we shake hands, I walk out.’\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lord Sugar instead fired his rival, Conor Galvin, before granting Kieran his request – with a warning.<\/p>\n

‘You wanted to be project manager,\u00a0 you’ve got it,’ he said. ‘The bad news is, it’s got nothing to do with selling houses.’ Kieran stood firm, replying: ‘If I lose, I’ll walk.’<\/p>\n

\"Apprentice <\/p>\n

Apprentice candidate Kieran McCartney quit the show after back-to-back task failures – storming out of the boardroom before Lord Sugar could fire him\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Kieran, <\/p>\n

Kieran, lost the latest challenge, to create a pet lifestyle brand and product, as well as his deal with Lord Sugar\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the pact spectacularly backfired when Kieran lost Thursday evening’s challenge, as his cat product failed to attract sales.<\/p>\n

After missing out on a place in the final five and the chance to secure Lord Sugar’s \u00a3250,000 investment, Kieran said: ‘It was win or walk. I’m not a beg. I’m not going to beg for my place, a deal’s a deal and Lord Sugar hasn’t seen the last of me.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kieran added: ‘I think I am quite loud and out there and I am quite an easy person to blame if it all goes wrong because I put my ideas out, whereas some people don’t get noticed as much.\u00a0I could have stayed if I had fought for my spot.’<\/p>\n

Alongside Kieran’s departure, his teammate Rothna Akhtar, who confessed to a fear of animals, was also fired from the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reflecting on her exit, she said:\u00a0‘It was disappointing in that immediate moment, but it wasn’t a complete shock because I was standing against Dan, who I knew had a really good business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I was in shock because I was so close to the final five and I just felt this wave of disappointment. But slight relief because it’s an intense process. It was gut-wrenching when you’re so close to making final five.’<\/p>\n

Kieran sealed his fate last week when he tried and failed to make sales on a live shopping channel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watching the challenge unfold from the comfort of his home, Lord Sugar was left unimpressed as Kieran struggled to flog a yoga mat.<\/p>\n

\"Kieran <\/p>\n

Kieran sealed his fate last week when he tried and failed to make sales on a live shopping channel – leaving boss Lord Sugar unimpressed\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Alongside <\/p>\n

Alongside Kieran’s departure, his teammate Rothna Akhtar, who confessed to a fear of animals, was also fired from the process\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last month, Kieran admitted struggling with a cocaine addiction, even using his work phone to contact dealers before and after his appearance on the BBC show.<\/p>\n

He told a newspaper that he would spend around \u00a3500 a week on drugs but insisted he was clean during filming, which took place last year.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on how his addiction escalated, he said: ‘It always came if I had a few drinks. I couldn’t drink without doing it. I’d maybe have four pints, then a little bit, and then another four pints.’<\/p>\n

Kieran, now running his own estate agency, McCartney and Partners, hit back at claims he was ‘wired’ on The Apprentice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He revealed he brought more than 200 cigarettes into the north London multi-million-pound house where the candidates live to cope with stress – but denied taking any drugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The Apprentice was an amazing experience – mentally very stressful,’ he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘But I’m in a good place now. It didn’t even cross my mind once. I would have loved a beer, absolutely. It was summertime. It was hot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘But drugs? No. Definitely not. I had about 200 cigarettes on me when I went into the house. That was it. There’s a lot of people online saying a lot of things about a lot of people. I would say to them, ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Apprentice airs Thursdays on BBC One and is available to stream on iPlayer\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apprentice candidate Kieran McCartney quit the show after back-to-back task failures – storming out of the boardroom before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1578,539,93,61,60,169431,23321,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-378973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-lord-alan-sugar","14":"tag-the-apprentice","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}