Katie Olivia Hopkins (born 13 February 1975) is an English media personality, far-right political commentator, and former columnist and businesswoman. She came to prominence as a contestant on the third series of the reality show The Apprentice in 2007. She later became known for her outspoken views and controversial social media presence, which received significant publicity. In 2007, Hopkins appeared on the seventh series of the reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. In 2015, she appeared on the fifteenth series of the reality show Celebrity Big Brother, where she finished as runner-up, and hosted her own talk show, If Katie Hopkins Ruled the World. The following year, Hopkins became a presenter for the talk radio station LBC and underwent major brain surgery to relieve the severity of her epilepsy. She has also been a columnist for British national newspapers, including The Sun and MailOnline. In 2021, Hopkins joined the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Hopkins has gained significant controversy for her views and statements on UK politics, social class, obesity, immigration and race. In 2016, her former employer MailOnline was forced to pay significant damages to a Muslim family whom she had falsely accused of extremist links. In the 2017 libel case Monroe v Hopkins, Hopkins was required to pay damages and legal costs to food writer Jack Monroe after making defamatory remarks on Twitter. Her role at LBC was terminated in May 2017 following her comments on Twitter about the Manchester Arena bombing. Hopkins was permanently suspended from Twitter in June 2020 for what the company described as "violations of our hateful conduct policy", but her account was reinstated in November 2023.
Early life and education Katie Olivia Hopkins was born on 13 February 1975, in Barnstaple, England. Her father was an electrical engineer for the local Electricity Board, and her mother was a bank teller. She has an older sister. She was brought up in Bideford, attended a private convent school from age three to 16, played sports and learned to play the piano and violin. As a child she believed she was "going to be the colonel of the forces. I loved the military. I loved the discipline, the rigour, the big shouty men." Hopkins studied Economics at the University of Exeter, receiving sponsorship from the British Army Intelligence Corps. She spent weekends with the Officers' Training Corps. She completed her military training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, but had an epileptic seizure during the final passing-out ceremony, and as a result was unable to take up her commission. Hopkins said she kept her epilepsy secret while attending Sandhurst, as this would have prevented her from being commissioned. Instead, she joined a business consultancy and moved to Manhattan, New York City, before returning to the UK in 2005. In September 2006 she joined the Met Office as a global brand consultant.
Career
The Apprentice
In late 2006 Hopkins was allowed to take unpaid leave from her Met Office job as part of her probationary period of employment to take part in series three of the reality TV show The Apprentice. In the format used at that time, contestants in The Apprentice competed for a £100,000-a-year job working for the businessman Alan Sugar. Hopkins rejected Sugar's offer of a place in the final episode of the programme, citing problems regarding childcare provision for her daughters, and withdrew from the competition at the end of the penultimate task. The episode gained 6.2 million viewers, while the following You're Fired! episode, in which Hopkins was interviewed, was watched by 3.1 million. Throughout her time on The Apprentice, Hopkins made several critical comments on camera. The comments were directed at her fellow contestants, viewers of television shopping channels, maternity leave, fake tans, and overweight people. Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill writer Richard Curtis expressed his distaste for Hopkins; while accepting his Fellowship award at the 2007 BAFTA awards, he jokingly vowed to kill her. When video clips of her comments about other candidates were shown on The Apprentice: You're Fired!, following up on the main programme, Hopkins said that they were "quite funny". Michelle Mone, the founder of lingerie company Ultimo and a guest on the panel, criticised Hopkins, calling her "exceptionally selfish", said she was not to be trusted, and accused her of giving "businesswomen a bad name". Sugar was criticised over his questioning of Hopkins about her childcare arrangements, and accused of violating the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. The incident received substantial media comment. Sugar argued his case in an interview with GMTV host Fiona Phillips, stating that he was aware of the rules.
Aftermath In June 2007, Hopkins lost her job at the Met Office, which said she did not meet the required standards to complete her probationary period, and it confirmed that her performance on The Apprentice and confessions about her private life were a factor in her dismissal. Hopkins later stated that the media were informed of her dismissal an hour after she was fired. After her appearance on The Apprentice, Hopkins signed two deals to sell her story, one with the News of the World newspaper and the other with EMAP, the company behind Heat and Grazia magazines. Hopkins said in an interview with BBC Radio Kent that she had great respect for Sugar and that she believed she would have won the programme had she been in the final episode. She also said that the media's attitudes towards her did not affect her but did affect her family. She made a similar claim of hypothetical victory in an interview with Fiona Phillips on the morning of the final Apprentice episode, although Sugar had said that if she had wanted to press on, he would have fired her, whoever she was competing with. Hopkins told BBC Radio 1 that she had not yet ruled out a media career but expressed interest in starting a business venture.
Media career
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