Lord Alan Sugar thinks he’s the reason Piers Morgan has a television career.
The 70-year-old business magnate thinks the ‘Good Morning Britain’ presenter owes him because he gave him his big break when he agreed to give him a spot on the ‘Comic Relief’ celebrity edition of ‘The Apprentice’ in 2007 to raise money for charity.
Speaking at the screening of the new series of ‘The Apprentice’ and Q&A, held at London’s Soho Hotel, Lord Sugar said: "It was me that launched his television career – seriously, absolutely serious.
"He actually phoned me up when he heard ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ was on, and he said ‘please can I do it?’ and that’s the first time he appeared on television."
Lord Sugar fired the 52-year-old journalist for "winding people up" but he has claimed he later helped him storm to victory on the US version of the show to become Donald Trump’s "best business brain" in 2008.
He explained: "Afterwards, I coached him how to win the American ‘Apprentice’ – seriously, you should have been a fly on the wall when I did that.
"I was in Florida at the time and it was the live final that evening and I said to him ‘is it really live or is it a pre-recording?’ He said ‘it’s live’. I said ‘right, you’ve won. How you gonna win? Simple. You’re gonna put Trump into a corner where he cannot do anything other than choose you’. And that’s how it worked out."
Lord Sugar and Piers – who are usually locked in war of words on social media – will come face-to-face next month when the multimillionaire appears on ‘GMB’.
He said: "I’ll be there on the 11th of October. I’ll get my boxing gloves ready. He hasn’t stopped talking about how he won the American ‘Apprentice’. It’s so boring. Susanna Reid yawns every time he brings it up and every time he mentions how much of a good friend he is of Trump, who incidentally hasn’t spoken to him since he won the election."
‘The Apprentice’ will return to screens on October 4 at 9pm on the BBC.
Lord Alan Sugar: I made Piers Morgan a TV success
