Claudia Winkleman has admitted she found having to be ice cold with contestants on The Traitors “deeply weird” – and she even had a warning from BBC bosses about it. The 51-year-old revealed in a new interview that she was used to being “a cheerleader and a helper” in her role on Strictly Come Dancing, which she co-hosts with Tess Daly, and she struggled to adjust to the treachery of The Traitors.
“I knew too much so couldn’t be close to the contestants,” she told the Radio Times. “By the end I couldn’t help but show how much I cared about them, but at the beginning, it was deeply weird.
“The producers had to really persuade me to send two people home as soon as they arrived. I couldn’t really cope with it, but they said, ‘This sets the tone, don’t be wet.’ So off they went…” Claudia hadn’t initially been keen on taking on the hosting role, thanking producers for thinking of her but explaining she didn’t think she could spend three weeks in Scotland with three kids at home.
However, when she received video footage of the original Dutch version, she couldn’t resist having a change of heart. “I watched the first four episodes in one sitting, told the kids to make their own tea and then begged the BBC to let me be part of it!” She enthused.
While it was tough leaving her sons, Jake, 20 and Arthur, 12, plus her 17-year-old daughter Matilda, for the best part of a month, she’d had no hesitation about signing up for a second series. “I didn’t have to think about it for a second. Even if they’d given it to someone else, I’d have followed the crew up there,” she joked, before adding: “That sounds pretty creepy, doesn’t it?”

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Claudia became so emotionally involved in the show that her ice queen demeanour soon melted – and before she knew it, she was in tears.
Referring to contestant Wilf Webster’s big reveal, she confessed: “I cried, and I really shouldn’t [have done] because of the ten buckets of eyeliner I wear.”
She found herself becoming close to all of the contestants, and enjoying watching friendships getting forged in the intensely atmospheric location.
Filming took place at Ardross, a 19th-century castle in the Scottish Highlands, close to Inverness, which was extensively renovated prior to the show starting.
Claudia has warned that she left one round table “shaking” during the filming of the latest series – but won’t disclose more than that, so viewers will have to tune in for the full lowdown.
Meanwhile, she’s admitted she’d love to see a celebrity version of the show, featuring Miriam Margolyes, Minnie Driver, Jimmy Carr and Rick Astley.
However, the TV host doesn’t have much confidence in her own abilities to hold her own on a game show like The Traitors, chuckling: “I reckon I’d be first out.”
The full interview with Claudia runs in this week’s issue of Radio Times, out now.