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Alan Carr has broken his silence over the fallout from BBC’s hit reality series Celebrity Traitors, admitting that his dramatic on-screen decision to “murder” longtime pal Paloma Faith appears to have cost them their friendship. Speaking candidly on his Life’s A Beach podcast with Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), Carr said he’d “killed Paloma Faith” on the show and that “she’s not happy about it.”
The row stems from a pivotal Traitors moment in which Carr, one of three secret Traitors in the castle alongside Jonathan Ross and Cat Burns, was asked to eliminate a Faithful in full view of the other contestants. Carr chose Paloma, a pick that produced shock waves across the campsite, on social media and, now, off-screen. The format of the show forces players into ethical dilemmas, but that hasn’t stopped emotions spilling into real life.
On the podcast, Carr attempted to explain his choice with characteristic humour, and a dash of remorse. He joked “I’m killing people willy nilly, I’ve got a real taste for it,” before admitting the decision left Paloma “gutted” and “hurt.” When asked whether the pair were still friends, Carr admitted: “Well, I was…” and confessed he plans to try to make amends, saying, “I’m going to take her for dinner. I love her. I’m such a big fan of her and she’s the best, but no one wants to be murdered first on a show. I panicked.”
Paloma has not kept her feelings private. Sources reporting on her reaction say she felt humiliated by being the first to go and used social platforms to express her disappointment, with a mixture of pointed posts, an Instagram story and subsequent comments implying the situation had damaged their friendship. Insiders say she told Carr that “if you were a real friend, you wouldn’t have killed me.”
The singer, 44, revealed she’s expecting her third child last week, shortly after being eliminated from the hit BBC show by her friend Alan, who plays a Traitor alongside Jonathan Ross and Cat Burns. Credit: instagram.com/palomafaith/
Producers designed The Celebrity Traitors to create exactly these high-stakes social tests, alliances, betrayals and the moral cost of competition. Contestants are required to play a game where “murder” is a theatrical elimination executed according to the rules (in this series, by being tagged by the Traitors using a faux-poisoned lily in one challenge), but viewers and participants alike have seen how quickly the line between performance and relationship tension can blur. The series has already produced headlines for several explosive exits and fraught reunions.
For Carr, the prospect of a friendship fracture is clearly unwelcome. Despite leaning on comedy to describe the episode, even drawing an on-air comparison to a reality show obligation (“It’s like going on Naked Attraction and being told, what, I have to take my knickers off? You know what you’re signing up for!”), he repeatedly insisted his choice was game play rather than personal betrayal, adding that he was “the Traitor” and simply doing what the role required. Still, as he acknowledged, the emotional fallout has been real.
Paloma’s fans and other contestants have been vocal on social media since the episode aired, and commentators note how modern reality TV can turn private friendships into public narratives overnight. Whether dinner and an apology will be enough to repair a friendship tested under bright lights remains to be seen, but for now the row is another reminder that in shows like Celebrity Traitors, strategy often comes with collateral damage.
