Michelle: You're sired!
By SARA NATHAN
TV Editor
and RICHARD WHITE
APPRENTICE winner Michelle Dewberry is pregnant by her reality show rival Syed Ahmed. The blonde is expecting following an on-off relationship with Syed, who she beat to the prize of a job with tycoon Sir Alan Sugar. Michelle, 26, is thought to be up to three months pregnant. Last night a source close to her revealed: ?She is stunned, this was definitely not in her plan for the future. She has worked so hard to get this job.? Syed, 31, is said to have vowed to stand by her ?come what may?.
Michelle, famed for her ice cool temperament during The Apprentice, fell pregnant during a reunion with Bangladesh-born Syed. The pair got together on the BBC2 show in which they were the only single contestants.They had a fling throughout filming last year, before the cameras stopped rolling in November but they had split by the time the show aired this spring. Cocky Syed was left fuming after watching Michelle bad-mouth him on the programme.
However, their stop-start relationship continued ? even after Michelle had a date with EastEnders star Joel Beckett, who plays Jake Moon. She swapped numbers with the hunky actor at The Apprentice finale.
Last month Michelle was taken ill on a business trip to Leeds. The Sun revealed how she was rushed to hospital with stomach pains days after starting work with Sir Alan, 59 ? catchphrase ?You?re fired!? Michelle insisted she had been taken to St James?s Hospital with a painful tooth abscess but was told by docs to take a few days off.
A source said of the pregnancy: ?To say it?s come as a surprise would be an understatement. But Michelle has told family and friends in Hull ? and Syed said he will stand by her, come what may.?
Michelle was spotted outside her South London home yesterday, wearing dark glasses and looking grim-faced in a tight black dress. The entrepreneur landed her ?100,000 job despite leaving school with just two GCSEs. She beat sales manager Ruth Badger to become the Apprentice and head up Sir Alan?s new firm Xenon Green ? which disposes of unwanted computer gear. Her success followed a turbulent upbringing which saw her beaten by her dad and lose older sister Fiona, who fell from an eighth-floor tower block window when she was 19.
Syed, who describes himself as a ?business bad boy?, was recently caught drink-driving for a FOURTH time ? while already banned. He escaped a jail term after admitting he was depressed by his troubles on The Apprentice and the news his mother had got cancer. Syed told the judge: ?The last six months have been traumatic, the last four months tortuous.?
Michelle?s spokesman refused to comment last night. Syed was said to be on a work trip and unavailable for comment.
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I'm sure Alan Sugar is delighted with the news!
