Did Apprentice star work himself to death at 27?
AN ENTREPRENEUR who became the youngest- ever contestant on BBC One’s The Apprentice was a workaholic whose punishing 18-hour days may have contributed to his death, it emerged last night.
Friends say 27-year-old Stuart Baggs, nicknamed ‘Baggs The Brand’, had been suffering from insomnia as a result of his stressful job.
The businessman, who lived on the Isle of Man, had launched a new 4G internet hub on Tuesday that was set to revolutionise communications on the island.
But in the days running up to the launch of the product he had complained of feeling unwell and talked about the heavy toll his business was taking on him.
Mr Baggs was found dead in his luxury flat on Thursday morning, lying on the floor with his head on a mattress. Tests are underway to discover the cause of death but his friends have ruled out drugs or alcohol.
Amy Burns, 33, a close friend, said: ‘He said he was feeling ill, he was saying, “I’ve got insomnia. I can’t sleep. I’ve been working really, really hard’.” Last night his mother Rosemary, 58, said: ‘He was working 18-hour days and was suffering from stress. He was driven and a workaholic.
‘We don’t know what happened. We are waiting for results of the tests but it is just dreadful – we are all so devastated.’
The entrepreneur, who ran BlueWave Communications, became the Apprentice’s youngest- ever candidate when he appeared on the show aged 21 in 2010. He became known for oneliners such as ‘everything I touch turns to sold’. He was later fired in the semi-final and the series was eventually won by investment banker Stella English.
Last night Lord Sugar tweeted: ‘RIP one of the stand-out characters of The Apprentice.’ And police said they were waiting for the results of a post-mortem examination, but confirmed that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.