Celebrity Traitors contestant Joe Marler has admitted his time on the BBC deception game show was humbling and often made him feel “incredibly uncomfortable”.
The former England rugby player is one of the 19 well-known faces taking part in the series that has seen him go head-to-head with national treasures including Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross, and Alan Carr.
“I felt incredibly uncomfortable doing it,” Marler said, adding that although he is famous in the “rugby world” he doesn’t have the same face recognition as other players on the show.
“You think in the rugby world, you think rugby is massive…You come out of it, go into a normal world and they go, ‘Who are you then? What do you do?’” he told Jamie Laing on the Great Company podcast.
“You go, ‘Oh, I used to play rugby.’ And they go, ‘What, like, [rugby] league?’ It was really good. To have a bit of perspective on it,” said the 35-year-old, who retired from rugby last November.
Oddly, Marler said that “one of the many highlights” from being on the show was being mistaken for “the sound guy or in charge of the props”. Overall, though, despite his nerves, he said that it had been “one of the best experiences” of his life.
Earlier this month, Marler, who played 95 times for England during his career and won the Six Nations three times, said he’s often asked if he’s famous enough for Celebrity Traitors.
“The question I get the most is ‘How did you get on that show?’ There's loads of celebrities on there?’” he told the BBC, adding he’d had a “great response” from the public as the series airs otherwise.
Marler is a Faithful player – meaning that he is unaware of the identities of the Traitors. However, he has begun to draw suspicion due to his impassioned approach at the heated round table discussions.
After six episodes, 10 Faithfuls have either been banished or “murdered” without a single Traitor being successfully ousted.
Statistically, this means the current cast are the worst-performing set of contestants in the show’s history.
Stephen Fry, who was the fifth Faithful to be banished from the show, said he “lost all faith” in his own judgement during his time on the show due to the wily scheming of Traitors Carr, Ross and singer Cat Burns.
The Celebrity Traitors continues on Wednesdays and Thursdays on BBC One at 9pm.
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