FANS of The Apprentice were treated to its most lavish launch show yet - after lucky contestants jetted off to Antigua.
The hotly anticipated new series of the long-running show saw the hopefuls tasked with creating and selling day trips to tourists on the tropical island in a bid to win a life-changing investment of £250,000 from Lord Alan Sugar.
The contestants couldn’t believe their luck when Lord Sugar unveiled where they were heading.
And it prompted former The Apprentice winner Ricky Martin to write on Twitter: “Imagine being told you were going to go to Antigua on the first task of #TheApprentice - Bloody hell I only went to Edinburgh.”
Apprentice boss Lord Sugar, 75, is no stranger to a spot of luxury himself. Having grown up in a council flat in the East End, the entrepreneur is now said to have a net worth of £1.21bn, making him the 138th richest person in the UK.
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Here, we reveal his lavish life away from The Apprentice…
Mansions
Lord Sugar has stayed close to his East End roots, buying a mansion in a leafy part of Essex.
He bought the historic five-bed home, set in three acres of parkland, and with a garage big enough for six cars for £800,000, in 1981.
According to Land Registry documents, daughter Louise, 46, took over ownership of it for £8.5million in 2021 - without any mortgage.
She is set to undertake a major revamp that will see the mansion, which dates back to 1908, increase in size by a third and includes building a spa, yoga studio and dog room for the family pet.
Lord Sugar, who is known for his philanthropy and donates his Apprentice fee to Great Ormond Street Hospital, used to own a £8.4million waterside six-bedroom mansion in Boca Raton, Florida, with the area said to have the highest average household income in the state and the third highest in the whole United States.
But in 2020, he said he “no longer has a house in Florida” following a Twitter spat with Piers Morgan who took issue when Lord Sugar defended Brits who went out to parks to sunbathe during lockdown.
Piers tweeted: “Billionaire hiding safely in his luxury Florida home demands the right for British people to all go out sunbathing…"
But the Apprentice star hit back, writing: "Just so you know I don't have a house any more in Florida that's rubbish info @piersmorgan has spread to wind people up against me.
"I have a flat with a balcony.Pool area closed, no tennis,no golf, no boats all by law.1 hour exercise."
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The following month, he took to Twitter in a bid to flog a new luxury Florida mansion, owned by one of his companies, for £10.5 million.
With six bedrooms and seven bathrooms, the waterfront property is located in one of the most sought after - and expensive - neighbourhoods in Palm Beach. It boasts a huge swimming pool with its own bar and not one, but two baths in the master bedroom. But it’s not clear if any of his 5.2million followers had that sort of cash to spare.
Lord Sugar also used to own a six-bedroom villa on the Costa del Sol but is said to have sold it for £9.7millon in 2015 - making a tidy profit after having bought it for around £3.5million.
The huge three-storey, mustard coloured villa was set on a private road close to a beach near Marbella, Spain, a popular holiday destination among the super rich.
Private jets
When you’re a jet-setting businessman like Lord Sugar, flying economy on easyJet just won’t cut it.
The billionaire has bought a number of private jets over the years. In 2010, he purchased a £18.5m Embraer Legacy 650 private jet - which had G-SUGA emblazoned across it - posting dozens of pictures of it on social media.
Lord Sugar, who has had a pilot's licence since 1975, admitted he prefers flying privately for his “300 hours or so of business flying I do every year” because he hates the stress of modern travel.
He said in a 2010 interview: “It is my little luxury. Standing around at airports, checking in and all that stuff, gets on my nerves.”
It’s believed that he changed it for another jet - with a personalised reg of G-SUGA - costing around £36million in 2014 and last year was seen landing it himself at Teesside Airport.
In 2020, the business tycoon showed off his new £600,000 plane he bought in the US. The Cirrus SR22T aircraft can carry five people, including the pilot, and has been fitted with a turbocharger to increase performance.
He told his followers he was looking for a professional ferry pilot to bring the aircraft to the UK.
Yacht
Lord Sugar's 181ft superyacht Lady A - named after his wife Ann Simons, 73 - was put on the market for a whopping £12.2million in 2018.
Lord Sugar snapped up the superyacht , which boasts six cabins, a Jacuzzi and has marble sculptures on the top deck, in 2015. It also features a state room capable of seating 12 people.
Car collection
The tycoon has a fleet of luxury cars and is known to be a long-time fan of British brand Rolls-Royce.
He is most famous for the Phantom 8 and has owned a number of these over the years, always using the number plate AMS 1.
The Phantom costs around £350,000 but customers often spec them to within £1million with custom finishes.
He bought a Bentley S1 Continental Sport Saloon, which was first owned by Sir Elton John. Lord Sugar had the car for 25 years but later admitted he overpaid for the silver Bentley, claiming he had been "done up like a kipper" by the singer.
It was sold at auction for a cool £366,000 in 2017 and he appears to have swapped it for a vivid red model after writing on Twitter: “Here is the new Bentley just unveiled today.”
Also that year, he bought a white Chevrolet ZO6 Corvette, which is said to cost more than £700,000 new. He appears to have upgraded it for a purple supercar Chevrolet Corvette C8.
Speaking about his latest toy in 2020, he tweeted: “Here is my new car coming December.”
His other cars are said to include a Range Rover and a bullet-proof luxury Mercedes.
Luxury watches
In 2018, eagle eyed Apprentice fans clocked that the billionaire wore seven different Rolexes in nine episodes, including one with a price tag of up £90,000.
The seven timepieces worn throughout the series were estimated to have cost Lord Sugar around £230,000.
That year, Lord Sugar splashed out on a £46,000 Patek Philippe 5711/1A-010 watch from Michael Cox of Michael Spiers jewellers in Plymouth - with the owner hand delivering it himself.
The Apprentice star tweeted a picture of them and his new, writing: “That’s what I call service.”
