So, what happened to Claude Littner and why isn’t he on The Apprentice as much anymore?

The 2023 series of The Apprentice is about to kick off, and whilst Claude is back in the first episode, he has again been replaced as a full-time aide to Lord Sugar by Tim Campbell. In the very first episode of the last series, Lord Alan Sugar announced Claude Littner would not be taking part in The Apprentice 2022 because he had been in an accident. And for the same reason, he’s not fully back for 2023.

73-year-old Claude was involved in what has been described as a “horror accident” and has since been recovering. Here’s exactly what happened to Claude in the accident, and why he didn’t take part in The Apprentice 2022 and has had a reduced role in 2023.

via BBC

Claude Littner was involved in a cycling accident in April 2021

Claude was in an accident where he fell off an electric bike in April 2021, and was rushed to hospital after. The incident took place near his home and he was taken to the trauma unit at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, where he had to have emergency surgery to save his leg. At first doctors decided they were going to amputate one of Claude’s legs, but they then took him into theatre and managed to allow his leg to be kept.

The initial operation is said to have lasted for many hours and Claude underwent nine surgeries in total after the accident. Speaking about the accident in a later interview with PA, Claude said: “I was just pottering along, I must have been doing no more than 10 kilometres an hour on this sort of two-track road. The next thing I knew, I was on the left-hand side of the street, my bike was in the middle of the road and I didn’t know what happened.”

Speaking of his time in hospital, he added: “My wife and my sons were there as well and [the doctors] decided they were going to amputate my leg. And then they had another chat about it and they said, ‘Look, let’s get him into theatre right away tonight and let’s see if we can save his leg’. And I went into theatre and it was a very long operation and they didn’t take my leg off.”

It was revealed Claude lost over two stone because of the ordeal, but during the 2022 series said he had been “doing well” since. In an interview with Lorraine, Lord Sugar said his aide has “absolute determination” to recover and aims to return to his role on the show in future. “Claude has been part of the series since the beginning and is leaving an important boardroom chair to temporarily fill,” he said. “I’ve been speaking to him regularly about his recovery, and of course hope we see him back in the boardroom very soon.”

Ahead of the 2023 series, Claude has given a further update. Speaking on Good Morning Britain, he said: “It was a freak accident. I think someone was looking out for me but if someone was looking out for me better, I wouldn’t have had the accident. I was lucky to have the ambulance driving behind me.

“I am doing wonderfully well, thank you. I am very grateful to the ambulance crew for looking after me and of course the surgeons at St Mary’s who put me back together.”

For now, Karren Brady is joined again by Tim Campbell, who won the first series of The Apprentice.

The Apprentice 2023 starts at 9pm on BBC One, on Thursday 5th January. Episodes will also be available on iPlayer. 

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