Fiona Hughes, the Secret Traitor on this year’s series of The Traitors, has shed new light on her shock exit from the show.
It was revealed during Wednesday night’s instalment of the hit BBC reality series that Fiona, a 62-year-old local government officer from Swansea, was in fact the Secret Traitor, a fact previously kept hidden from the other Traitors.
Just two episodes later, Fiona was banished from the show following a sensational confrontation with fellow Traitor Rachel.
After Amanda was banished during Thursday night’s episode, Rachel revealed to the group that Amanda had admitted to being a former police detective in real life. At this point, Fiona disputed the information, accusing her co-conspirator of being a Traitor.
The group ultimately sided with Rachel, and banished Fiona from the competition.
Speaking to Ed Gamble on the Traitors Uncloaked podcast, Fiona has now admitted that believed Rachel the whole time, and was simply strategising in order to gain an advantage.
“No, I knew she was saying the truth,” she said. “I absolutely knew she was saying the truth and I trusted her explicitly.
“However, I’d had my suspicions on Rachel,” she continued. “I thought that if anybody’s going to throw me under the bus, it’s going to be Rachel.”
While the feud ultimately ended up with Fiona’s exit from the series, she maintains that her challenge “had to be done”.
“If you play poker and you have a rubbish hand, you’re not going to keep putting money in the kitty, you throw the hand down,” she said. “And I thought that’s what I’m going to do here. I’m going to throw a grenade in the room and let’s see who comes out of it unscathed.”
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“It had to be done, I think. It would have been lovely for the three Celts to have made it to the end, but it was never going to happen.”
She was nonetheless complimentary of her co-star, whom she described as an “amazing player”.
“Rachel is canny. She’s going to be the queen of Ireland,” she said. “She’s an amazing player, absolutely amazing, and I love Rachel to bits.
“But I’d seen that Rachel was the danger to me – or I’d felt [it]. And I always go with my gut, so I listen.”
The Traitors continues on BBC One at 8pm next Wednesday, with episodes airing each week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.