Celebrity Traitors cast members Kate Garraway and Clare Balding found themselves back at the roundtable, at least figuratively, during a tense exchange on Good Morning Britain today (November 6).
Clare appeared on the ITV breakfast show to promote her new book Pastures New, her first novel for adults.
But the segment quickly derailed into chaos after Kate mistakenly labelled the book a “bonk buster”, sparking a row that reignited their Traitors tensions.
Kate Garraway and Clare Balding rehash Celebrity Traitors row
“She’s written her first novel for adults, which Kate says is a bonk buster,” Ed Balls teased at the start of the interview.
“I did not say that!” Kate immediately shot back. “I was told that. Look, don’t start trouble between Clare and I all over again. It wasn’t me who said that, Clare. I’d like to assure you that was the impression we got from the producers.”
Clare replied: “No, that’s because Jilly Cooper told me to write it. But it’s not a bonk buster. It’s about love and faith and trust.”
Although the pair laughed it off and began to chat about the novel, which follows a young woman who unexpectedly inherits a farm, the light-hearted mood didn’t last long.
“Did you like writing it? Because I always think of you doing stuff that’s fact-based.” Kate enquired.
“Doing stuff?” Clare mocked. Then Kate couldn’t help but bring up Celebrity Traitors, and the drama quickly escalated.
“You can see what it was like,” Kate told viewers. “Can I just say, Clare was the first person in Celebrity Traitors to say that I was suspicious, and you can see how she is. I’m at the roundtable all over again.”
Clare jumped in, saying: “She kept arguing with me, Ed. She kept arguing ‘if somebody put your name down’. I never put your name down!”
“But you told everyone you thought it was me!” Kate fired back.
“At the roundtable,” Clare clarified.
“Jonathan [Ross] and David [Olusoga] both said it was you,” Kate retorted. “Let’s carry on.”
Clare, still determined to have the final say, quipped: “If we’re going to go on who you should trust, if it’s a choice between me and Jonathan, stick with me, Kate.”
Kate smiled and admitted: “I should have done, and I do in real life.”
‘How do you make your voice heard?’
The back-and-forth left Kate’s co-host Ed Balls both bewildered and entertained. “What is going on?” he laughed. “This is better than watching on the TV!”
While Ed tried steering the interview back to Clare’s book, the veteran sports broadcaster wasn’t quite ready to move on. “I’m going to make a point. Is that alright?” she said, suddenly turning serious.
“It’s about the roundtable, and it’s about how you make voices heard,” she explained. “Because I believe all the time that sport is bigger than just the game being played. I think Celebrity Traitors is bigger than the game being played.”
Drawing parallels between reality TV and real-life dynamics, Clare continued: “Whether you’re in cabinet meetings… school staff meetings, team sports… how do you make your voice heard without being shut down? Also, how do you ensure all voices are being listened to equally? The people who have influence carry with them half the table.
“We defer, and we defer on the basis that the deference is to education, gender, age, it’s to a tone of voice.”
“It’s to comedy,” Kate chimed in.
“Yes, and comedy means you can get away with a lot,” Clare agreed. “But Joe Wilkinson said something really interesting about that. Anytime he said something, it was like he was talking in lowercase.”
She added pointedly: “I think there were a lot of occasions for women, in particular, you find you are talking in lowercase, and no one is necessarily listening.”
Celebrity Traitors wraps up tonight on BBC One – the final sees cast members Alan Carr, Cat Burns, David Olusoga, Nick Mohammed and Joe Marler vying to win the prize pot for their chosen charities.
Read more: Is the Celebrity Traitors on tonight and what time can you watch the final?
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