Ross Kemp has feared being killed in plain sight since the very first day – but when it finally happened, he didn’t have a clue
Gotcha! Ross Kemp finally succumbs to the yawn murder
Ross Kemp has admitted that “fear of failure” was what drove his intense paranoia in the Celebrity Traitors castle, which proved highly entertaining for viewers.
The actor and presenter was killed by the Traitors in plain sight last night, after he was the first to yawn in the library, breathing in a deadly perfume sprayed by King Kenny under orders.
But having been fearful of being bumped off in public since the very first day – after Bella Ramsey put a hat on his head and Leigh-Anne Pinnock touched his arm – when it actually happened he was none the wiser. Speaking just after he left the castle Ross, 62, said: “I lived every day thinking I was going to get killed, and now it’s actually happened.
“The fear of failure on this is not comparable to anything. Whether you’re an actor, or in a hostile environment where you could get killed, you don’t let people down. Yes, no one’s going to get killed here, but the wish of not wanting to let yourself down or the people around you, was quite the drive.
“I was under a considerable amount of pressure by my children to do this, and you can’t really say no to it. It’s so popular. I think it’s the cleverest show on British television.”
Ross bowed out on TV with some sinister words for those who had killed him. “Well played Traitors,” he said. “But you’re always going to bee Traitors. And I know where you live…”
Stressing that he had “enjoyed it immensely”, Ross explained: “The whole environment just makes you paranoid. If you’re a fan of the show, you know that murder in plain sight happens. So when someone puts a hat on you, or touches your arm, however innocently it might be, I don’t think I’m wrong in suspecting it.”
Tipping “very clever” Maya as a potential winner, along with fellow Traitor James Acaster, Ross insisted: “I don’t feel that bad that I’ve gone when I’ve gone.”
And having put his absolute all into the Missions, in which money is raised for the prize fund, he’s hoping that he’ll now be missed. “I think it’s just in my nature to take on a physical challenge and want to succeed at it. I hope the next three or four Missions involve really heavy lifting across water, hopefully with some poo involved. I’ll watch it with great glee,” he laughed.
Jerry Hall said that being banished because she was “an icon” had come as a surprise, with Miranda Hart wrongly suspecting that the producers and host Claudia Winkleman wouldn’t have been able to resist putting Jerry and Richard E Grant into the turret together.
But Jerry – who recognised that she’d “made mistakes” in her exit speech – said she hadn’t laughed so much in years. Insisting she’d given it her all, she said: “Oh, it’s so much harder than the catwalk – it’s a very competitive world, and there’s some ruthless people, I should have been better prepared. Apparently the reason I got voted off was because I was an icon, which didn’t sound like it was a very factual reason. I think they saw me as a threat.”
But the 70-year-old said she’d even enjoyed her banishment, declaring: “It was kind of fun, and they were all so sweet. It was a lovely ending.”
The model, originally from Texas but now living in London, has no idea who the real Traitors are. “I’ve suspected James Blunt for quite a while, and Joanne, and even Leigh-Anne, and Miranda too. And Romesh, so there you go.”
Nevertheless, she was proud of what they’d achieved. “We caught two Traitors and we’d made quite a bit of prize money, I thought we were on a roll.”
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