Romesh Ranganathan, winner of The Celebrity Traitors, has said he was "terrified" of James Blunt's reaction during the final elimination and fears the singer might have become a "real-world enemy."
The 48-year-old comedian won the BBC show alongside actor Sebastian Croft, 24, after eliminating Traitor King Kenny, 29, and fellow Faithfuls James Blunt, 52, and Leigh Anne Pinnock, 35, in the End Game. Romesh and Sebastian, known as Bash, each took home £41,500 for their chosen charities - Refugee Council and Choose Love.
Final elimination drama
After Kenny was banished, the remaining contestants had the choice to end the game. While both Bash and Romesh voted to end it, the comedian cast suspicion on James, calling his earlier reactions "dismissive." Insulted that his Faithful status was being questioned, James decided to vote again, essentially sealing his own fate, as Bash and Romesh became suspicious and voted him out.
During an appearance on the BBC spin-off show Uncloaked, Romesh confessed that he panicked as he and Sebastian decided to banish James. Expressing his fear that he now has a newfound "nemesis" in the You're Beautiful hitmaker, he said: "James Blunt, at some point in the future, will kill me."
He added: "You think about all the possible outcomes of the End Game, what wasn't possible for me was a nemesis. I didn't expect to make enemies, like real-world enemies. And the better news is, he's been military trained."
Romesh's regrets
The pop star attended the University of Bristol on a British Army bursary, then trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He served as a captain in the army from 1996 to 2002, before entering the music industry.
Romesh confessed that he felt "so bad for James" after eliminating him, and at the same time he started worrying that all of the singer's fans would hate him. He added: "In my defence, after that last roundtable, you are wearing all of your nerves on the outside of your body and you are just trying to accumulate whatever data you possibly can."
He continued: "Your antenna are up and you're just like, 'Can I find anything that might give me a clue before I go to that fire pit?' And that was a thing that I latched on to and I'm sorry about that. It was a wafer-thin thing."
Romesh continued: "His reaction terrified me, I'll be honest with you. I almost said, 'I'm just gonna leave now, if that's okay. I'll make a separate donation to charity.' I can't even speak now, I was so terrified about it."
James Blunt's response
"I felt so bad, my heart kinda broke for James. I thought, 'Oh man, I've put that in his head. I was clutching at straws really, in a way." In response, James said "it does make complete sense" to keep going until "you have got rid of all those doubts."
Even though Romesh voiced his fears about James' reaction, the singer said he has no hard feelings, as he shared: "I really enjoyed it. It was intense, like all of them.
"It was coming down to the wire, so it's like all of them, and there was a curve ball in there that completely caught me by surprise, which actually was fantastic gameplay by a person who was no longer acting like a Faithful but was actually acting as a true Traitor, but I was really happy with it, because you know, we've got the Faithful win."
