Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Facing Lord Sugar was scarier than going topless on TV’S Shameless Actress is first out of The Apprentice
APPRENTICE reject Sarah Byrne admits she was more terrified facing Lord Sugar in the boardroom than when she went topless on national TV.
The actress and former glamour model, 29, previously stripped off for a scene in Noughties Channel 4 hit Shameless.
She said: “When I did Shameless, I had to go topless. It was nerve-wracking but it was a closed set. It was definitely more scary facing Lord Sugar in the boardroom.
“I’ve been acting since six but I’ve only been in business for two years, so it was something completely new to me.”
Sarah, who owns a children’s acting academy in Manchester, was quizzed about lingerie shoots from her late teens and early 20s when she applied for the
BBC reality show.
She followed up the pictures by going topless while playing Meena
Karib in Shameless from
2008 to 2009. She said: “They asked me about the pictures but were supportive.
“I knew they would come up again once I appeared on the show. But I embrace my pictures. I’d like to think Lord Sugar would have been open-minded about them. I won’t do them again now but I would do nudity if it was in another acting role. Sometimes that’s part of being an actress, to have to get naked or do a sex scene.”
Asked if it would be creepy if Lord Sugar had seen her photos or topless scene, she said: “Yes! But I don’t think he would have.”
Sarah was the first hopeful in this series to be told “You’re fired” after the girls’ team accused her of being argumentative on the first task in Malta. She insists that she was just being “passionate” but said she has learned a lesson. Sarah said: “I’m a creative person and I was in a corporate world.
“I would have liked to have been given a chance to continue.
“I’m a passionate and bubbly person and I found myself in the boardroom with two contestants trying to bring me down. It’s difficult when people are saying things about you.”
Sarah had daughter Sadie, four, with Shameless co-star Jody Latham, 36, who she was engaged to. But following their split in 2016 he was hit with a restraining order after admitting harassment. Sarah said they have now put the difficulties behind them for Sadie.
“Jody is very supportive,” she said. “We are on good terms for the sake of our child and working well at co-parenting.”