Since rising to fame on the BBC show The Apprentice in 2017, Thomas Skinner has presented himself to the public as a successful ‘cheeky chappie’ entrepreneur. A charming Essex lad. A caring family man.

However, this meticulously crafted persona is now in ruins, as former partner Amy-Lucy O’Rourke, 35, has disclosed that he deceived her and ‘gaslit’ her after she uncovered that his marriage to his wife Sinead was not the sham he previously described.

Amy-Lucy, an aesthetician and mother of one, claims she began an affair with Skinner in the summer of 2022, just weeks after his wedding in May.

At that time, he assured her the marriage was merely a practical arrangement, she recounts. Yet, in July of that year, Amy-Lucy realized this was untrue and consequently ended their affair.

She now alleges that Skinner, 34, who is set to debut on the BBC hit show Strictly this Saturday, did not take the breakup well and appeared at her door insisting on a conversation.

In disturbing footage from her Ring doorbell, Skinner is seen outside for ninety seconds, despite Amy-Lucy clearly expressing her disinterest in speaking. He also seemingly attempts to force his way into her home, but she prevents him.

Dramatically, she then leaves the doorstep of her house near Brentwood, Essex, to smash the windscreen of his Mercedes 4×4, which is parked outside.

The Daily Mail can also reveal that Skinner sent her a barrage of text messages after she ended the relationship, calling her a ‘crazy lady’ and ‘insane’.

In footage given to me by Amy-Lucy, Skinner is first seen standing on her doorstep making hand gestures at the camera as she refuses to answer the door.

He then shouts at an upstairs window, again demanding she open the door.

Amy-Lucy shouts back, ‘Leave me alone and go away,’ yet he keeps banging the knocker.

She then opens the door and tells him her son is asleep.

On Monday, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Amy-Lucy told how she’d had a months-long affair with Skinner.

She told of her anger and her heartbreak at how he has since portrayed their relationship, claiming father-of-three Skinner told her he was in love with her and unhappy with wife Sinead.

Amy-Lucy said: ‘Thomas told me I was the love of his life and sold me an absolute dream.

‘He told me that he was in a loveless relationship of convenience.’

Indeed, Amy-Lucy said they were often out in public together and acted like a couple besotted with one another.

In a separate interview with another newspaper, meanwhile, Skinner claimed their relationship was nothing but a meaningless ‘two-week fling’.

In an attempt to downplay the romance, he told The Sun on Sunday: ‘It was the one time, it was a mistake. I woke up feeling absolutely terrible about it.

‘I felt so guilty, I told my wife. I let her down in that brief moment of madness where I wasn’t thinking, where I didn’t appreciate what I had.’

However, today, Amy-Lucy insists he didn’t tell his wife – she did.

She tells the Mail: ‘It makes me really angry that his narrative is that he told her.

‘He did not tell her. I can’t believe he’s trying to make out that he did the honest thing. He did not, he tried to keep the lie up for weeks and was torturing me emotionally.

‘He was playing me and Sinead off against each other. Telling me one thing, telling her another.’

In fact, she says, on July 3 2022, six weeks after Skinner married Sinead, he told Amy-Lucy that he loved her in a late-night text message. He also told her: ‘Good night, beautiful.’

Skinner’s claim that it was a one-off is also undermined by other video clips Amy-Lucy has of the pair. In one, she is sitting in a sunny pub garden while he shows off a rose he has made for her out of a white napkin. Amy-Lucy says: ‘Look, Thomas made me a really cute rose.’

In another video he jokes that he feels ‘kidnapped’ by her.

‘Thomas would cook for me and took my car to get it fixed like a boyfriend,’ says Amy-Lucy. ‘He made me believe everything was perfect and that we were meant to be, but he’s a liar and a cheat.

‘He is definitely not what he portrays himself to be on social media.’