Stephen Hendry was fined whilst appearing on The Masked Singer

Following his unmasking last week, the PA news agency asked what he told people he was doing while keeping his identity a secret.

The former world No1 said: “I do have wildcards to play in some snooker events and I actually pulled out of a couple of events and got fined by the WPBSA (World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association) for doing it.

“And I couldn’t tell them why because this recording was going on and I couldn’t obviously say why I pulled out… I just said ‘Look, I can’t play the tournament’.

“So, yeah, it was, very, very, very strange… you’re dying to tell people what you’re doing but you can’t.”