After several intense weeks, it came down to her and fellow finalist Pascha Myhill competing to become Lord Alan Sugar’s latest business partner.
She beat 19 other candidates to win the popular BBC show, securing a £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar for her skincare brand, Kishkin.
Who won The Apprentice? Karishma Vijay named winner
Karishma Vijay (right) and Pascha Myhill were the two finalists in The Apprentice 2026 (Image: BBC/Naked/Matt Frost/PA Wire)
The 28-year-old beauty business owner from Ashford triumphed in an all-female final against Reading’s Pascha Myhill on Thursday’s episode (April 16).
Recounting the moment Lord Sugar told her she had won and would be receiving his £250,000 investment, she told PA: “I was so blown away, so shocked – but I kept it very cool.
“Then, I got in my car and I was screaming.
“It was just insane – I can’t believe I’ve gone and done it after not having watched the show, I feel like that’s so cheeky.”
She said once the final is filmed, the contestants have “no idea who has won” and must wait up to six months to find out the results.
Vijay said: “Having all that waiting time, it was a lot of anxiety.
“I’m just happy with the outcome.
“I’m so over the moon.
“And I’m just so happy to have all these opportunities now, it’s insane.
“My life has just really turned around.”
Vijay continued: “The last three or four years, my life has been nothing short of a sh*t storm.
“Everything that you can imagine going wrong went wrong, and it was like, ‘How am I surviving this?’
“I felt incredibly unlucky, then I found this show.
“I’m just so eternally grateful for all of it.
“Had I not hit rock bottom, it would have never been this unreal.
“I wouldn’t have probably been this grateful if it had come easily to me.”
The 28-year-old beauty business owner also recently got engaged, announcing the news with a series of photos with her fiancé on social media.
She said: “I actually can’t believe my life right now.
“Things keep happening.
“I’m just having a really good week.”
Ms Vijay plans to use Lord Sugar’s investment to expand Kishkin, adding: “It’s going to be a brand that really made it, with young girls queuing up to buy it.”
Family pride has featured heavily in her celebrations.
Ms Vijay said: “My mum and dad are the proudest people on Earth right now.
“They cannot stop speaking about me to everyone they meet.
“My dad raised me as a single dad – both me and my sister.”
Responding to those who doubted her father’s ability to raise daughters alone, she conceded their scepticism.
Ms Vijay said: “Being from the kind of community I’m from, they told my dad, ‘There’s no way you’re going to be able to raise these two girls as a man, as a single parent’.”
Evidence, she says, now speaks for itself.
Ms Vijay said: “My older sister is a doctor, and I’m the winner of The Apprentice.
“What more can a dad ask for?”
She also took time to praise her fellow finalist, saying: “I have so much love for Pascha.
“I think she’s incredibly inspiring and the most deserving.
“A lot of people were questioning her place in the final and I just won’t have it.
“She deserves a seat at that table, 100%.”
Who is your favourite winner of The Apprentice? Let us know in the comments.
