The Apprentice has returned for season 19 but what is there to know about original star Margaret Mountford and where is she now?

The iconic business show has been airing for almost 20 years, giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to change their lives by scoring a £250,000 investment and mentorship from the man himself.

While Baroness Karren Brady and Tim Campell MBE are the billionaire’s aides today, when the show first started, he had Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford on either side of him in the boardroom.

Now, with The Apprentice back on the small screens, fans have grown curious regarding the life of Margaret Mountford and her current whereabouts.

Born in County Down in Ireland, Margaret was educated at Strathearn School in Belfast before going on to study at the University of Cambridge and then worked at a London city law firm as a corporate lawyer.

She was a partner at legal firm Herbert Smith which was around the time she met Lord Sugar while she was doing legal work for his company Amstrad’s flotation on the Stock Exchange.

After retiring in 1999, she went on to become a non-executive director on the Amstrad board.

Back in 2012, Margaret opened up to the Daily Mail about her health, sharing that in her 30s, she had benign lumps “cut out of my neck”.

She explained: “They were a symptom of an illness I wasn’t aware I’d had called toxoplasmosis — a bacterial infection caused by parasites found in under-cooked meat and cat faeces.

“I couldn’t understand how I’d picked it up as I hadn’t eaten raw meat and didn’t have a cat at the time.”

Toxoplasmosis is a common infection in the UK which affects up to a third of adults but reported cases are low, because most people don’t experience any symptoms.

The 73-year-old starred in the first five seasons of The Apprentice but her seat was taken up by Baroness Karren Brady the following year.

She explained that she had left so she could work on her PhD in papyrology, the study of ancient literature at University College London.

Margaret did return to conduct the interviews on the BBC show joked to What’s On TV that she was fired.

"They didn't ask me back," Mountford explained. "I suppose I was fired!

"No, obviously they weren't going to want me to carry on doing interviews forever, and nor did I want to do them forever."

Margaret has left the of showbusiness for good and now has a very different career.

Putting her PhD to good use, she is now on the Steering Committee for the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.

In addition to this, she became the chairwoman for the British non-profit organisation Egypt Exploration Society.

Margaret is still on hand to help young business minds though as last year, she attended a careers event at Edinburgh University where she was offering students tips on how to land their dream job.

The Apprentice season 19 premieres on Thursday, January 30, at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.