Richard E Grant has become the first celebrity to be banished from The Celebrity Traitors 2026, after a blunder he has described as “catastrophically idiotic”. The 69-year-old actor exposed his identity moments after being chosen as one of Claudia Winkleman’s Traitors alongside Maya Jama.
Despite trying to backtrack and save himself after declaring himself a Traitor, Richard’s fate was sealed. He missed out on the opportunity to follow in Alan Carr’s footsteps, who won the first series of The Celebrity Traitors.
Betrayal at the Round Table
Richard has now addressed the moment he knew it was his time to go, despite possibly being the biggest fan of the show. His competitors chose to banish him, using his own confession as evidence against him, with Love Island host Maya, and recruited Traitors James Acaster, following suit to avoid any suspicions.
Speaking of receiving the votes from his fellow Traitors, Richard revealed: “It didn't surprise me because they have to save themselves, and at the Round Table, James never uttered a word, other than when he was asked, 'Who have you chosen and why?'”
“He never said a word before, so he clearly listened to everything, and it was a tsunami of my name around the table. So, to have gone against that like Joanne [McNally] did is risking your neck.”
Reflecting on the Mistake
Richard also reflected on the mistake that led to his downfall, saying, “Joe [Lycett] asked me. He said, 'Are you a Traitor?' I suppose what I should have done in retrospect is go around everybody and say, 'Are you a Traitor? Yeah. I am a Traitor, I am Spartacus. I am a Traitor' to try and make light of it, but that may have dug my grave even deeper.”
“It was a completely catastrophically idiotic thing to do! I can only imagine the faces of the producers looking at each other and mouthing ‘he said WHAT?!’”
Reactions from Claudia and Producers
Following Richard’s infamous blunder, Claudia and The Celebrity Traitors producer Sarah Fay shared their reactions. Claudia said, “He was just so happy, he couldn’t believe it.” She went on: “You couldn’t not give it to him, you couldn’t not because he wanted it so much and he’s so compelling. And he’s Richard E Grant, I couldn’t believe that he was actually in the castle.”
“He was giddy. And five minutes after he said it, he went, ‘Ohhhh’. The genius of the game is everybody plays it completely differently, and he took that to the next level.”
Ed Gamble, who hosts spin-off series Uncloaked, added: “It was absolutely incredible. He was vibrating with excitement in the turret. It felt like he’d been given a lead role in a film, and he just had to tell everyone. It was such an insane moment.” He added: “What an amazing moment, such an insane way to start a brilliant series!”
Executive producer Sarah also shared at a screening: “Within five minutes of being out of the round-table, he’d already mucked up. I still can’t believe it now! Richard E Grant, how iconic!”
“As producers, you always want to make sure the series feels fresh and new, and we’re very lucky so far. We’ve just come back from filming our seventh series, we’ve just finished civilian, and in every single series, the cast brings something completely different.”
“But never in our wildest dreams did we think that we’d have a Traitor admit they were a Traitor within five minutes after the roundtable.”
She continued: “We needed to make sure that we were all on our guard, in terms of the cameras, like how is he going to try and get himself out of this one? We’ve never, from the moment of being picked, seen a Traitor have to try and backpedal like that.”
The Celebrity Traitors continues on Friday at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
