Entrepreneur Rachel Elnaugh has called on women to boycott the businesses run by Theo Paphitis, her former fellow panellist on Dragons' Den, after he said females' brains "turn to mush" during pregnancy.
Elnaugh, who appeared in the first two series of the popular BBC TV business reality show, hit out at Paphitis following his comments in an article in the Telegraph.
The boss of brands including Ryman, La Senza and Contessa as well as Red Letter Days, run by Elnaugh before it went into administration in 2005, told the newspaper that people who think 50% of all jobs should go to women are "barking mad".
Referring to the highly-paid women who run many of his companies, he added: "They go and get themselves bloody pregnant and I say 'right: for three months before you even give birth, you're going to be useless, your brain will turn to mush."
Writing in her blog, Elnaugh criticised Paphitis saying he was "totally out of touch with what is actually going on


We're putting together a list of business owners' must-haves.