text: 5 Things You Didn't Know: Sir Alan Sugar
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  From his humble beginnings selling electrical goods, Sir Alan Sugar has risen to be arguably the richest and most famous British businessman on television today. The Essex man now has an estimated fortune of £830m and in 2000 was knighted for services to business. Since becoming the star of BBC 1 reality show, The Apprentice, viewers in the UK are glued to his show every week watching him as he eliminates one contestant after another.But what about the man behind the TV personality? Sugar has certainly had a colourful life and there are still quite a few quirky facts that even his most ardent fans would be surprised to learn.
  Here, are five things you didn’t know about Sir Alan Sugar…
  1 – He was destined to make a fortune
  The seeds of Alan Sugar’s success were sown at a very early age. The famous businessman had an entrepreneurial spirit even while at school and was already selling photographic film to friends; boiling beetroot for the greengrocer and doing a paper round. Sugar went on start his own business in 1968 called Amstrad, which was an acronym of his existing corporate identity, Alan Michael Sugar Trading.Amstrad was definitely his passport to fame and riches and the businessman has gone on to amass an estimated fortune of £830m through other businesses including his investment firm, Amsprop. Sir Alan Sugar was ranked 84th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2007. As a result, Sugar enjoys a lifestyle mere mortals can only dream about. He has a yacht, a private jet and a mansion in Chigwell, as well as houses in Florida and Marbella. And of course, he famously drives a Rolls-Royce Phantom with the registration AMS1.
  2 – Sir Alan has been married for nearly 40 years
  Alan Sugar’s story of how he met his wife is almost the stuff of Mills and Boon. Sugar got it together with the shy and inexperienced 16-year-old trainee hairdresser, Ann Simons, when he was just 18 years old, in 1966.Two years after they first met they were married and have been together for nearly 40 years. Sir Alan was knighted in 2000 and the couple have three children; Simon, 35, Daniel, 33, and Louise, 30.
  3 – Sugar caused a storm about employing women
  Sugar is well known for his opinionated views but he famously caused a storm with his attitude towards women in the workplace. He insisted that current equality laws make it more difficult for women to find jobs, claiming the rules that prevent employers from asking job applicants if they plan to have children result in some companies simply throwing away women's CVs.More things you didn't know about Sir Alan Sugar...