Apprentice candidates Phillip Taylor and Kate Walsh may look all loved up now but rumour has it that Kate was not the Phillip’s first choice.

Paula Jones, who was fired from the show in week four, reportedly claimed that Phillip tried to bed her in the early days of filming but after she rebuffed him, he moved on to wooing Kate.

The People report that Paula told a friend: “It was obvious from the moment we met that he wanted to bed me. One night he tried to pull me on to a sofa but I wasn’t having any of it.

“He kept calling me Jessica Rabbit from the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit and playfully slapped my bottom. He even compared me to the back of a racing car, saying my bottom was all trim and full of oomph. I just laughed in his face.”

Asked to make an official statement, human resources consultant Paula said: “Sorry, I can’t comment. I am still contracted to the show.”