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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Lauren Del Fabbro

Claudia Winkleman says Traitors Rachel and Stephen were like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’

Claudia Winkleman with the winners of season 4 of BBC1’s The Traitors, Stephen and Rachel. (Paul Chappells/Studio Lambert/BBC) - (PA Media)

The Traitors presenter Claudia Winkleman has said the series winners Rachel and Stephen were like “Bonnie and Clyde”.

The duo became the first pair of traitors to win the UK series during a tense finale on Friday night.

Rachel, a director of communications from Newry in Northern Ireland, and Stephen, a cyber security consultant, originally from the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides but now living in London, were selected as traitors by Winkleman from the very beginning of the series.

They remained faithful to each other while deceiving the rest of the players through to the end, splitting the prize pot and claiming £47,875 each.

Speaking on the spin-off show, The Traitors: Uncloaked, Winkleman praised their alliance to one another and said: “I found their end and their love for each other incredibly moving.

“What I loved about Rachel and Stephen, from the very beginning, knowing what you know now, they just looked after each other without being obvious.

“They made that alliance.

TX DATE:23-01-2026,TX WEEK:3,EMBARGOED UNTIL:23-01-2026 21:45,PEOPLE:Stephen, Rachel & Claudia Winkleman,DESCRIPTION:++POST TX ONLY++,COPYRIGHT:Studio Lambert,CREDIT LINE:BBC/Studio Lambert/Paul Chappells

“We’ve never seen that before. Lots of people make alliances and they last, you know, an episode or five minutes, but they decided, and not Romeo and Juliet, because that ended badly, but Bonnie and Clyde.

“They were lovers in the turret and they stuck together.”

It comes after the series finale saw the pair vote out the remaining faithfuls in a nail-biting finale which saw Jade, Faraaz and James voted out.

Following their victory on the show, Winkleman told the players: “Two traitors but totally faithful to each other. You did it. You absolutely did it.”

At the start of the series, the duo made a pact that they would never write each other’s name during the roundtable with both sticking to their word right until the end.

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