Apprentice star Melody Hossaini: My bullying hell at Great Wyrley High School

Jul 31 2011 by Anuji Varma, Sunday Mercury

APPRENTICE beauty Melody Hossaini has revealed she cut a lonely figure at her Black Country school after being bullied because of her race.

The Iranian-born businesswoman, who made the final six in the BBC1 show, claims she was targeted at Great Wyrley High School, in Walsall, because she was the only ethnic minority pupil.

Melody, 26, came to live in the West Midlands with her family after leaving Sweden at the age of13. They had first fled from war-torn Iran.

She shot to fame on The Apprentice after Lord Sugar described her as a “tiger” in the boardroom for using cut-throat tactics to beat her competitors.

Melody, who now lives in Warwickshire, returned to the Black Country yesterday to support Nivea’s new Moments of Closeness campaign.

Speaking from Merry Hill Shopping Centre, said told the Sunday Mercury her school life was far from easy.

“It was a real culture shock when I came here,’’ she said, ‘‘and the first year was the hardest of my life.