ADAM Freeman - the man who created a media storm after quitting The Apprentice hours before he was due to meet Sir Alan Sugar - has hit back at claims he is simply a cocky Essex boy who bottled it.

He's been called a wannabe and a drop-out, but the 31-year-old businessman from Chigwell told the Guardian he decided to pull out after producers tried to pressure him into presenting himself as another Sir Alan.

He said he felt so uncomfortable with how he was being asked to act that it was an easy decision to walk away from the start of three months of filming in September to spend more with time wife his wife Joanna, 29, and daughters Sienna, three, and Peyton, one.

He said: "Some of the things that have been said are well wide of the mark. I think I have been stitched up a bit really.

"They had about 40,000 applications so they could have found a replacement for me at the drop of a hat. It was the producers who messed up, and I hope whoever was picked to tell Sir Alan what had happened was the first to be told - 'you're fired'."

He added: "My family have been very supportive, although my wife was hoping to get into OK! magazine. I suppose it means I've missed out on an appearance on something like Never Mind the Buzzcocks, but in all honesty - apart not meeting Sir Alan - I have no regrets."

Adam, a 31-year-old entrepreneur who made his first million by the age of 25 by selling ringtones, and who now runs a successful loans company, actually featured in the Guardian in the early 1990s - after setting up his first business at the tender age of 13.

He said: "Business is in my blood, and I truly believe I would have won this show if I had taken part. But it just was not for me.

"And when I look at how differently the contestants are being portrayed compared to what they are actually like, I know I made the right decision."

Adam said he felt sorry for business strategist Anita Shah, 35, when she became the first to be given the boot during the first episode of the latest series which attracted 8.3million viewers last Wednesday.

He said: "I thought she was a bit robotic and we did not really see the best of her. But it's a tough show so I guess that is the way it goes."