The Apprentice star has explained his absence from last week’s episode that left him isolated from the other contestants.
Levi explained his absence in a post on social media (Image: BBC)
Levi Hague, a contestant on The Apprentice, has shed light on his conspicuous absence from the latest episode of the show.
The BBC’s business competition, helmed by Lord Sugar, is in full swing, with a surprise double elimination in the opening episode and two more hopefuls shown the door since. The remaining contestants are vying for a hefty £250,000 investment into their business ventures.
This year’s line-up includes a star from Geordie Shore and an actress, but viewers noticed that former RAF Gunner Levi was missing from the recent episode.
Taking to social media, Levi clarified his absence, attributing it to a bout of severe food poisoning that led him to “lose more weight than an Ozempic user”.
He admitted he missed parts of the second episode and was still feeling under the weather during the third task, leaving him feeling “gutted”, reports Wales Online.
In a TikTok video, he recounted: “The night before the task, we got in pretty late, about 10 o’clock at night, couldn’t be bothered to cook, I was being lazy, and I had some spaghetti Bolognese, either that or some chicken, whatever.
“I got food poisoning, really bad. Diarrhoea and vomiting. The place where we went to do the boardroom, you have a little chill out room before, and I spewed up getting out the car.
“More or less spewed up when we got into the chill out room, so they isolated me straight away, so I wouldn’t spread it to any other contestants. So, yeah, that’s reason why I were down, it was diarrhoea and sickness.”
The contestant revealed he was taken out of the house and placed in hotel accommodation to recover separately from his fellow housemates, with production staff regularly monitoring his condition.
He continued: “I went down for about four or five days. Had to go on some hardcore antibiotics. Put it this way…. I lost more weight than an Ozempic user, and after I went toilet after 21 times in a day, I stopped counting after that.”
In an accompanying caption, he explained: “Right… let’s clear this up before the conspiracy theories start If you’re wondering why I wasn’t there for Task 3 – I was still man down with food poisoning.
“Given it was a food task, it probably wasn’t the best idea to have me anywhere near the public or a kitchen or away from a toilet So that’s the reason! Not to worry though… these extremely rosy cheeks and this northern accent will be back on your screens next week. P.S. Thank you for all the messages of support and concern genuinely appreciated.”
Levi has faced controversy over his inclusion in the programme, after his historic offensive social media posts were uncovered.
It was claimed he made discriminatory remarks towards Muslims and sexist comments about women. He later apologised for the posts, which have been deleted.
Production company Naked also admitted social media checks had “failed to flag the offensive posts” and that the process would be reviewed, adding: “Levi’s historical posts contain language which is unacceptable and Levi has been spoken to about this behaviour. He has apologised and insists that these posts do not reflect the man he is now.”
A BBC spokesperson said the views presented in the posts were “totally unacceptable” and the organisation was taking it “extremely seriously”.
“We were completely unaware that this contestant had made such abhorrent comments,” the BBC spokesperson said.
“We have asked the independent production company to fully review the social media checks undertaken given the process has clearly failed in this instance.”
The Apprentice continues on Thursday at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.