How The Apprentice star Jessica Cunningham pursued her business dream while earning £1,000 a day as a stripper
The ex-contestant also worked as masseuse in Ibiza and sold jelly shots in Magaluf before earning spot on Lord Sugar's show
APPRENTICE beauty Jessica Cunningham funded her first business venture by earning £1,000 per day as a stripper.
The revelations about her wild past, which only emerged because of her appearance on the BBC, have rocked her family, with her mum considering therapy to help her cope.
Speaking for the first time about her time as a stripper, Jessica admitted that when her parents found out it was like “a dagger to their hearts”.
She told The Sun on Sunday: “I feel terrible, I’m their little girl. My mum is talking about seeing a therapist and my dad feels like he failed as a father.
“They worked so hard for me and are quite prudish so it’s hard for them to take. They’re embarrassed.”
But mum-of-three Jessica, 29, insists she has no regrets as she looks to make a success of her new business after being fired by Lord Sugar on last Thursday’s episode.
She said: “Stripping was fun and easy money. At the time I didn’t think that there was anything wrong with it.
“With tips and private dances I could earn up to £1,000 a day.
“I called myself Roxanne Fox and told the men in the club I was studying to be a lawyer. I made up a fake back story so I wouldn’t have to talk about the real me.
“Getting naked in front of strangers could make you feel insecure at times but for the most part I treated it as a laugh and got on with it.
“Most of the customers just wanted someone to sit and chat with and they would pay hundreds of pounds to go to a private room with me so they could have a few dances and talk.
“It was a means to an end. Only a few of my close friends knew.”
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The entrepreneur, who runs her online fashion company Prodigal Fox from her Derbyshire home, said she stripped to get her business career off the ground.
Having previously worked as a masseuse in Ibiza and selling vodka jelly shots at a club in Magaluf,
Jessica spent six months in Dubai. But the move “didn’t pan out in the way I intended” and she turned to stripping.
She added: “I was only 21 or 22. I was a very different person and much more naive and selfish.
“I was skint and living with mates in Manchester when a friend told me she was working as an exotic dancer in Liverpool and said to try it.
“My first lap dance was such a blur. I know I was a bit too enthusiastic and goofy as hell. Early on I fell over a few times, which was embarrassing.”
Despite appearing easily flustered in some of the tasks on The Apprentice, straight-talking Jessica impressed Lord Sugar enough to make it to the penultimate episode.
She said stripping forced her to learn to cope with criticism, a handy skill for the pressures of business.
Jessica explained: “Most of the guys were just lonely and were nice to chat to. But some could be really rude and say, ‘Nah, you’re not my type’, when you asked if they wanted a dance. You have to have a thick skin.
“I like to dance but taking my clothes off in front of men didn’t come naturally.
“I would look across the club and some of the girls would be doing dirty things to get tips. That kind of thing never felt right to me.
“Some of the punters were a bit creepy but it was all above board and in the three months I worked there I never got groped.”
Jessica gave up the job after she met then-boyfriend Alistair Eccles. She used the money she had saved to fund her video marketing company Vidotise, but it flopped after eight months.
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Two more business launches followed then in 2013 Eccles — the father of her children — was given a 15-month suspended jail sentence for his part in an advertising scam, a crime she knew nothing about.
The couple, who never married, split soon after the birth of their third daughter two years ago.
Jessica has since juggled being a single mum and business owner. She gets up at 7am every day to take her girls to nursery and school and often works until 1am.
Her work ethic comes from her upbringing in Burnley, where her parents, who ran a second hand store, scrimped and saved to send her to posh Westholme School in Blackburn.
But during her GCSE year the money ran out and Jessica switched to a state school. Her parents also split.
Jessica’s off-the-wall personality and close friendship with finalist Courtney Wood, 29, saw her become a favourite on the reality show.
But she is now looking to the future, saying: “I loved being on The Apprentice, although it was stressful at times and tough being away from my kids.
“I have a lot of respect for Lord Sugar and don’t have anything bad to say about him.
“But I am determined to show him that, no matter what happened, I am a successful businesswoman.”
NO SECRETS STRIPPING
Psychologist Emma Kenny said: “On the one hand women should not be embarrassed about working as lap dancers -as long as they’re not ashamed of it and can compartmentalise what they are doing.
“Lap dancing is entrepreneurial. There is a market for it and whenever there is a market there are people willing to fulfil that need.
“But it’s important that lap dancers do not let their careers define them, that they can lock that part of their lives away.
“If your job spills out and affects the rest of your life it can be a problem.
“Women who work at lap dancing clubs can start seeing all men as bad and all men as cheaters.
“This can impact their relationships for the rest of their lives - they can’t trust men anymore.
“And the biggest problem when you’re a lap dancer is the stigma associated with it being seedy.
“For parents it’s difficult because they all want their children to do something that they can tell the neighbours. If they confess they are a lap dancer or anything in the subtext of society, this can make them feel ashamed.
“But the truth is that humans need sex and it is society that has an issue with this kind of work. If you’re an adult and you know what you’re doing then it shouldn’t be a problem.
“I believe her biggest mistake was keeping it secret. If she had been honest with her mum and dad they should have respected what she was doing and supported her like any parent should support their child.”
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