Nick Hewer is returning to The Apprentice tonight for the series finale - 10 years after he was last seen on the programme. Nick was one of Lord Sugar's aides from 2005 until 2014, but returned as an interviewer until 2016. The star, 82, hasn't been seen on-screen at all since 2024, when he appeared on A Shop Back in Time: Shops We Loved and Lost.

Nick believed it was the "appropriate time" to step back from the show and was replaced by Claude Littner. But tonight he will be returning alongside Lord Sugar's other former aide Margaret Mountford, who quit in 2009. Outside of the spotlight, Nick has been candid about the health issues he's suffered over the years, admitting he was an "inch away" from suffering a stroke.

The former Countdown star explained that his eyesight went "a bit weird" while he was filming in Rwanda for a children's charity.

"I was in my hotel room squinting away at my laptop when my vision went all funny. Unbeknown to me, a blood vessel behind my retina had burst," he said.

He was rushed to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London where "it was confirmed I was an inch away from having a stroke and that instead of a blood vessel bursting in the brain, it had popped behind the retina of my right eye."

He said: "They said it had been a near miss and, if it had gone undetected, it would have gone into the brain.

"I was fortuitous to be in the right place at the right time and I've been taking hypertension tablets since."

Nick used to smoke 20 cigarettes a day, but quit smoking to protect his health. He is also careful to avoid too much bacon or eggs to keep his cholesterol under control.

In 2022, he confessed that he has purchased his own grave. Ahead of appearing on reality show The Pilgrimage that year, Nick told Metro: "I thought, as I'm getting old, I'd like to straighten out [my religion] to see if there's anything I can believe in before I hit the deck.

"To show you how imminent that might be, Catherine and I have just bought a double grave. So we're on it."

Nick has also spoken about struggling with anxiety over the years, especially then he was in the early days of hosting Countdown. He purchased a SAD [Seasonal Affective Disorder] lamp to combat his sleep struggles and anxiety.