stunned

The competition series fronted by Gary Lineker took an uncomfortable turn as lies told by one of the cast finally came to light

ITV’s The Box cast were stunned after learning their co-star had lied to them.

The star-studded competition series sees celebrities taken to a series of locations where they are then given a challenging task to complete. As per ITV’s synopsis: “Plunged into the unknown while enclosed in a box, 10 celebrities emerge in mystery locations to face their fears in tricky challenges.”

While the line-up initially featured 10 famous faces, that has now been whittled down to just eight at the start of the third episode, which aired this evening (September 12). Remaining in the contest was YouTuber Danny Aarons; comedian Ellie Taylor; reality star Joey Essex; JLS star JB Gill; The Chase’s Jenny Ryan; former politician John Bercow; presenter Ranvir Singh and Love Island star Shakira Khan.

The opening challenge saw the cast thrust into a debate at the prestigious Oxford Union in front of a packed audience. Their debating partner was a fellow celebrity, with reality stars Joey and Shakira going head-to-head in an argument over whether cats or dogs made the better pet.

Just before the start of their debate, Shakira revealed that not only had she been Head Girl at her school, but that she had also been “head of the debate club”, leaving the audience erupting into gasps and Joey immediately doubting his chances at a win.

“I’ve no chance, have I?” he said, before show host Gary Lineker revealed that Joey had to argue for cats being better pets, while Shakira was assigned the counter-argument during which she claimed a scar on her face had been at the hands of a cat.

Despite his passion for the subject matter, Shakira was ultimately crowned the winner of their debate by the watching audience. However, when Gary brought the cast together later on, it emerged Shakira had not been entirely honest.

“Shakira, as head of the school debating society how relieved were you not to lose to Joey Essex?” Gary asked, prompting a sheepish admission from the Love Island star.

“That was actually a fib Gary,” she started, as a stunned Gary replied: “It was a fib was it? I didn’t think you had that in you.”

“The scar from my chin is also not from a cat,” Shakira added, leaving her co-stars open-mouthed. “So a few white lies don’t hurt in politics.”

Following the admission, her co-star Aaron fumed: “Shakira has shown her true colours today. She lied to the audience and I think that shows a snake.”

The Box continues tomorrow night at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX. Episodes 3 and 4 are also available to stream now on ITVX.

Jane Hazlegrove, who is best known for playing Bernie Winter on Coronation Street, has launched a rant at a fellow actor and her co-stars have all clamoured to know who she was talking about

Jane Hazlegrove has issued a warning to fellow TV stars about their behaviour on set. The actress, 58, who currently plays Bernie Winter on ITV soap Coronation Street and previously starred as Kathleen ‘Dixie’ Dixon on Casualty, took to Instagram over the weekend to make a statement about professionalism within the industry.

She shared an image of a quote which read: “Booking the role isn’t the end of the interview. How you behave after you’re hired matters too.”

In the caption of her post: “This post makes total sense! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? As my Dad used to say, you are only as good as your last performance! Be nice! And if you can’t be nice… step away… cos people see!”

The actress, who joined the soap in the role of Bernie in 2019 but also appeared in the mid-1980s Sue Clayton and was involved in a storyline with Jack and Vera Duckworth, was inundated with comments from co-stars.

Jack P Shepherd, who plays David Platt in the soap and has appeared on the show since 2000, said: “This isn’t me is it?”

Sally Carman, who plays Abi Webster, quickly joined in as she replied with a string of laughing emojis, but Jane said: “Soz pal you don’t win this one!!! No it’s bloody not!!!” Sue Devaney, who plays Debbie Webster on Coronation Street, left a string of heart emojis.

Loose Women star Sunetra Sarker, who appeared alongside Jane on Casualty when she played Dr Hannah, said: “Never a truer word said ma’am.”

Emmerdale legend Lisa Riley, who first appeared as Mandy Dingle more than 30 years ago and went on to appear in Waterloo Road and compete on Strictly Come Dancing before making a comeback in 2019, left a string of clapping hands emojis in the comments section of the post. Michelle Hardwick, who plays Vanessa Woodfield on Emmerdale, said: “Oh I LOVE this”

But Jane, who has also appeared in other programmes like Heartbeat, Silent Witness and Holby City over the years, quickly pinned a comment to the top of her Instagram post, so she could clear up any confusion.

She said: “Just for clarification this post is NOT about anyone I am currently working with at Coronation Street. It’s a gentle reminder to be kind and professional at all times!”

When Bernie arrived on Coronation Street, she was introduced as the estranged mother of Gemma Winter (Dolly-Rose Campbell) and Paul Foreman (Peter Ash), who was later diagnosed with motor neurone disease and died in late 2024.

Bernie went on to enter into a relationship with local shopkeeper Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin) and it was later established that she was the long-lost mother of DC Kit Green (Jacob Roberts), who later turned out to be the long-lost father of Brody Michaelis (Ryan Mulvey).

Bernie, who currently works in Roy’s Rolls, went on to marry Dev towards the end of last year but was dealt with further tragedy when events that unfolded in the programme’s crossover with Emmerdale saw a crash claimed the life of her son-in-law, Billy Mayhew.

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Novak Djokovic suffered from punishing heat and humidity on Saturday but made a match of it before falling 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Thiago Tirante in what could be the Serb’s last appearance at the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters.

The second-round battle lasted for more than two and a half hours, and it proved too much for the 24-time Grand Slam champion, who was playing his first match since he lost to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon semifinals more than a month ago.

Top-seeded Alexander Zverev, the French Open champion who fell to Sinner in the Wimbledon final, was more fortunate, squeezing out an opening 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Cameron Norrie in a match that took two hours and 45 minutes and ended at 2:15am.

Britain’s Norrie has now lost all eight of his matches against the German, winner of the Cincinnati title five years ago, who is hoping a return to Ohio will help him shake off an abrupt exit in Canada last week.

Norrie had wrapped up the opening set before Zverev began to find his footing to level the match.

Norrie saved six break points in a 12-minute game to begin the deciding set but was broken twice as Zverev advanced.

“I needed to get a match rhythm,” Zverev said. “The confidence was not there after Canada.

“The first set was not great, but the other two were at a high level, and I’m happy about that.”

Depleted Djokovic

Djokovic, who claimed the last of his three Cincinnati titles in 2023, took the opening set against Argentina’s Tirante with little fuss.

But the sweltering afternoon temperatures took a toll.

“It was a combination of the heat and humidity, all those things,” he said. “Everything involved makes it worse.”

Djokovic won a brutal 18-minute third game of the second, saving four break points over nine deuces. But he was bent over in distress between several points and even dropped to his hands and knees after one particularly gruelling exchange.

Djokovic took a medical timeout after that game, with the physio and then a doctor coming on court to assist with assessments and ice towels.

After Tirante took the second set, both players cooled off in the locker room.

Slightly revived, Djokovic set the pace again in the deciding set. But it all went wrong in the ninth game, when Djokovic saved three break points before getting it wrong on a drop shot to bring up a fourth break chance that his opponent converted.

Tirante clinched the biggest win of his career in the next game as Djokovic again failed to land a drop shot on match point.

The Serb, who must now try to regroup before the US Open starts on August 30, admitted he might have played his last match in Cincy.

“It looks like I won’t be back, unfortunately, to play here,” he said.

Tirante called the win the best of his career.

“I managed the nerves of playing a legend like Novak. It was all so much pressure.”

‘Focused’ Eala advances

In the WTA draw, Philippines sensation Alexandra Eala advanced to the third round 6-1, 3-0 as injured Elena-Gabriela Ruse retired from their match during a weather delay.

The Romanian had received treatment on her right ankle just before play was halted by a thunderstorm, Ruse pulling the plug during the delay.

Eala, the emerging WTA star who captured her first WTA title in Washington, DC, this month, will next play ninth-seeded American Amanda Anisimova, who beat Turk Zeynep Sonmez 6-2, 6-3.

“I was playing well and feeling really focused,” Eala said. “I tried to stay in the zone.”

“A retirement is not the way you want to end a match,” she added. “Injuries are not fun.”

Roland Garros finalist Maja Chwalinska advanced 6-2, 6-2 over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa.

Wimbledon winner Linda Noskova followed suit with her 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Britain’s Katie Boulter.

There was heartbreak for Payton Stearns, who grew up just blocks from the tennis centre. She lost 7-6 (9/7), 1-6, 7-5 to Dane Clara Tauson, who played through back pain but rallied from 4-1 down in the final set to win.