Fired 'Apprentice' candidate Maria Loughran has hit out at the show's other contestants and feels 'hard done by' to have been shown the door by Bill Cullen.
Loughran (33), from Santry, was perceived as being too nice by viewers and was fired from the show after failing in her task as project manager to intervene in a growing rift between team mates.
And Loughran now believes that the other contestants should have been given the chop before her.
"I feel a bit hard done by. It's especially hard to hear that you were one of the favourites," Maria told the Herald.
"I definitely think I wasn't controversial enough," she added. "I'm not a bitchy person."
Maria pointed the finger at other contestants Sam and Breffney, who admitted to Bill in the boardroom that he contributed very little to the task, aside from "standing there like a model".
"Breff is the cat with nine lives, he is very lucky. From a TV perspective he is TV gold and he is a very likeable character. The guy is uber intelligent. He won a scholarship to Harvard but he hasn't learned how to harness that yet."
And she lashed out at Breffney and Geraldine's mistakes in choosing the location of the ad and time-wasting during the task.
"I think they were so busy flirting with each other that they were distracted," Maria said. "I was pretty annoyed with them."
"Breff and Ger got together on the show and have been out and about since, their relationship has blossomed," she added. "They are the ultimate odd couple but I think they work."
"I have kept in contact with everyone bar Sam, I think that says a lot," Maria said. "I don't think we gelled. She was in my ear giving out yards about Steve when I was project manager. I think she was manipulating my thoughts about Steve and I shouldn't have listened."
Maria has returned to her role in Canada Life, where she has been working for 10 years and has tipped Lucinda to be in the final.
