Singer James Blunt has revealed that he did not originally decide to take part in the second season of Celebrity Traitors, saying his wife signed him up because she is friends with the show's host, Claudia Winkleman.
The 52-year-old, who appeared on the BBC programme that aired last month, lost out on victory to comedian Romesh Ranganathan and actor Sebastian Croft. Speaking to the Sunday Times, Blunt said his wife, lawyer Sofia Wellesley, was on friendly terms with Winkleman. When asked why he had signed up, he replied: “I didn’t. My wife did, because she's friends with Claudia.”
Mixed feelings after watching the show
Just weeks after the series finished, but six months on from filming, Blunt reflected on his time in the Scottish castle and said he now has mixed feelings about his appearance, going so far as to say he would not do it again. He said: “Before the watching the show on TV, I was upbeat. Yet, when I saw it last month, I felt less positive, because it’s so heavily edited.
“Obviously they have got to squeeze a day’s worth of shooting into an hour – but a lot of context is removed. It was frustrating.”
This is not the first time Blunt has claimed his wife signed him up to the show. In an interview with the Guardian, where he was asked if he would do more reality TV, he said: “I swore that I would never do a reality show. Ever.
“And I have lived and breathed by that proclamation. My manager doesn’t even bring me those shows. But my wife signed me up to this without telling me. And I really wish she hadn’t.”
Album promotion and a Valentine's gesture
Blunt has already conceded that one of his main motivations for joining was to promote his new album, Airplane Mode, which was released shortly after Celebrity Traitors aired. It appears to have been a shrewd move, as he secured his first UK No1 album since 2007.
During the most recent Valentine’s Day, Blunt said he went to extraordinary lengths to mark the occasion. He added: “I hired a helicopter, flew over my house and threw 100,000 red rose petals at my wife in the garden below. I thought that was pretty good. She thought it was OK.”
Blunt’s comments come after a major resurgence for the star who recently secured his first UK number one album for 19 years. He joked during his Sunday Times interview that he asked his manager if Coldplay frontman Chris Martin would sign up for the show. His manager apparently replied: "James, you're not Chris Martin."
Despite his claims that he signed up to the show to promote his album, he came very close to clinching a share of the prize money for his chosen charity.
