A look back at previous winners as The Apprentice's female winning streak continues with Marnie Swindells

In a knock-out final of The Apprentice, which saw Marnie Swindells compete against Rochelle Anthony for Lord Alan Sugar’s £250,000 investment, it was the former business woman who packed the punch.

Marnie Swindells fought off 17 other contestants to win season 17, putting the money behind her South London boxing club ‘Bronx’, which she opened after leaving her job as a court advocate.

Swapping her court cloak for boxing gloves, Marnie trained as a professional boxer and even won a tournament, before she decided to train ladies to defend themselves amid the rising crime statistics against women and only 42% saying they now trust the Met Police.

Marnie told MailOnline: “One thing I am really passionate about especially when it comes to teaching women boxing is to teach the real skill and the real technique. I think often women get palmed off with Boxercise and Boxfit but those classes won't keep you safe.”

Ahead of Marnie’s win, the boxing champ also responded to ‘unfair’ comparisons made about The Apprentice to Love Island, saying: “Women can have it all and to say we have to pick between either being glamorous or being good businesswomen is an insult. We can do both and we can do it all.”

Female representation has been at the forefront of businesses in recent years reflected by the success of The Apprentice.

Marnie’s win in 2023 adds to the female winning streak of the show that sees ladies take the top spot over the past six years, but who were they and what are they doing now?

2022

Dessert parlour owner Harpeet Kaur invested Lord Sugar’s money into rebranding her shop Brandi’s to Oh So Yum!

Harpeet now enjoys the success of three dessert shops in Bradford, Huddersfield and Leeds, with pop-up stores in Birmingham and Manchester Selfridges.

The 2022 winner seemingly also walked away from the show with more than a monetary investment as Harpeet is in a relationship with fellow competitor Akshay Thakrar. 

2019

As his name suggests, Lord Alan Sugar seemingly favoured sweet shop owners as Carina Lepore won the 15th season with plans to expand her bakery Dough Artisan Bakehouse.

People are now able to visit four locations of Dough Artisan in Herne Hill, Shepherd’s Bush, Bromley and Beckenham.

Although Carina is still going strong, she revealed she had struggled like many other small hospitality business owners during Covid-19 and confessed if it wasn’t for the pandemic, there may be more Dough Artisan stores.

2018

Sian Gabbidon won the year prior, with her swimwear and fashion business seeing Lord Alan Sugar come in as a co-owner.

However, since her 2018 win, Sian is the latest Apprentice star to longer work with Lord Sugar after he ceased to be a director in April 2022.

Despite this, Sian Marie Fashion is available on ASOS and its loungewear branch is stocked in ASDAs.

2017

Although The Apprentice has seen a long line of female winners, 2017 continued to add to the trend but also saw James White announced as a joint winner alongside Sarah Lynn.

In keeping with sugar and spice and everything nice, Sarah used Lord Sugar’s help to invest in her personal sweet business, Sweet City while James worked on his IT and infrastructure business.

After starting Sweet City in 2010, fans can now find Sarah’s business in Selfridges and Harrods after her successful five-year partnership with Lord Sugar. 

2016

The trendsetter for women winning The Apprentice over the past six years was Welsh business woman Alana Spencer who has not only launched a luxury cake business but also created a similar scheme to the show she triumphed in to help others.

In terms of her own business, Ridiculously Rich by Alana creates luxury sweet treats and are available both online and in cafes in Wales.

Inspired by her win on The Apprentice, Alana has also established an Ambassador and Cakepreneur Scheme which ‘allows those who have always wanted to run their own business, to join the company and start their own Ridiculously Rich franchise.’