The Apprentice winner ‘eternally grateful’ for the show turning her life around

The winner of The Apprentice has said she is “eternally grateful” she landed a spot on the show, which she has hailed for turning her life around.

Viewers saw Karishma Vijay crowned the winner of the BBC business show on Thursday after an all-female final, which saw her battle it out for Lord Sugar’s coveted investment against Pascha Myhill.

The 28-year-old beauty business owner also recently got engaged, announcing the news with a series of photos with her fiance on social media.

Vijay told the Press Association: “I actually can’t believe my life right now. Things keep happening. I’m just having a really good week.

“I think people are happy to see me happy. A couple of years ago, I was single, I called off a wedding, ran away from it all – very dramatic, Bollywood movie-esque.

“Now, I’m here with my happy ending and also a lot of money in the bank account.”

Vijay, from Surrey, recounted the moment Lord Sugar told her she had won and would be receiving his £250,000 investment, and said: “I was so blown away, so shocked – but I kept it very cool.

“Then, I got in my car and I was screaming. It was just insane – I can’t believe I’ve gone and done it after not having watched the show, I feel like that’s so cheeky.”

She said once the final is filmed, the contestants have “no idea who has won” and must wait up to six months to find out the results.

Vijay told PA: “Having all that waiting time, it was a lot of anxiety.

“I’m just happy with the outcome. I’m so over the moon. And I’m just so happy to have all these opportunities now, it’s insane. My life has just really turned around.”

Vijay continued: “The last three or four years, my life has been nothing short of a shit storm. Everything that you can imagine going wrong went wrong, and it was like, ‘How am I surviving this?’

“I felt incredibly unlucky. Then I found this show. I’m just so eternally grateful for all of it.

“Had I not hit rock bottom, it would have never been this unreal. I wouldn’t have probably been this grateful if it had come easily to me.”

Vijay will use Lord Sugar’s investment to expand her beauty business Kishkin, and said: “It’s going to be a brand that really made it, with young girls queuing up to buy it.”

She added: “My mum and dad are the proudest people on Earth right now.

“They cannot stop speaking about me to everyone they meet, and their friends – who probably overlooked us at some point.

“My dad raised me as a single dad – both me and my sister.”

Referring to her Indian background and her “very traditional” family life, she said: “Being from the kind of community I’m from, they told my dad, ‘There’s no way you’re going to be able to raise these two girls as a man, as a single parent’.

“My older sister is a doctor, and I’m the winner of The Apprentice. What more can a dad ask for?”

Vijay praised fellow finalist Myhill, saying: “I have so much love for Pascha. I think she’s incredibly inspiring and the most deserving.

“A lot of people were questioning her place in the final and I just won’t have it.

“She deserves a seat at that table, 100%.”