Every celebrity that left or was banished from The Traitors Australia

Keira lost to Kirby after they both voted out Krissy Marsh.

Because Kirby was the only Traitor standing, she automatically won the $200,600 prize, leaving Keira blindsided.

​Looking back on the finale, the former Bachelor Australia star tells New Idea it was “really hard” to banish Krissy, despite being suspicious of Kirby.

“It was either I had to think with my head and had to think logically, which I obviously couldn’t do in that situation because there was no certainty,” she tells New Idea.

“So I just had to choose with my heart, and I chose Kirby because in my mind, I feel like she wanted it. She played the game.”

On the other hand, she says she felt like Krissy didn’t want it as much, because she wanted to end the game earlier.

Caring about them both dearly, she particularly connected with Kirby, who was determined to win for her family.

Despite a Traitor winning, Keira explains she “would have felt so bad if I took that away from her”.

During the finale, the Australian Survivor star, who now has Traitors Australia champion to add to her resume, said she planned to pay for her sister’s wedding.

Despite not winning, Keira has no regrets.

“People went in with their own motivation; I went in with, ‘I want to make good TV’,” she explains.

“So when I can, if I can, I want to do something unpredictable, or create a little bit of unpredictability in a show which is a little bit predictable.”

One of her most unpredictable decisions? Voting Josh Packham out when she had the dagger.

“I think the thing that I was most upset about in that moment was the fact that I was left with these people because he was a Faithful,” she says, but adds that the Love Island star had his demise coming.

“I was like, ‘Well, then two of you were Traitors, and then I’m being fooled.’ So it was very overwhelming when you kind of look at it. You’re like, ‘I trust these people, but I actually don’t think I can.’ It’s very comforting.”

She also says that she is naturally very “changeable” when it comes to decisions, and if someone presents a compelling case, she’ll listen.

Despite her antics, one of her biggest takeaways is learning to back herself and trusting her gut.

“I’ve always second-guessed myself, and I’ve always thought things, and I’ve ended up finding out that what I thought was true, but I think when you do it on such a level, it just is a testament that we as women in particular, that we are very intuitive and we need to really listen to that,” she shares.

Krissy Marsh made it all the way to the final, but was voted out at the last second by Keira Maguire and Kirby Bentley.

While she thought she had a firm alliance with Keira, she hadn’t realised cracks were beginning to show, and her opting to end the game was the final straw.

Speaking exclusively to New Idea, Krissy insists she had no idea Keira was beginning to have doubts about her in their final days.

“I was really disappointed in Keira [watching it back],” Krissy admits.

“When it happened that night, I thought, oh, it was just a stuff-up. It was one of those things that just happened.

“She was so hysterically crying and upset. I was comforting her. But now, looking back, she had planned this a couple of days before. I cannot wait to get off the phone and actually ask her what the hell went on.

“We knew 100% that both of us were Faithful. Not even 100%, 250%, so what went wrong? At what point did she change?”

Krissy acknowledges that her bid to try and end the game with Kirby and Keira might have played a role, putting her decision down to a misunderstanding.

“I think I didn’t quite understand the endgame,” Krissy admits of her surprising decision to try and win the prize pot with both Keira and Kirby, despite vocally suspecting Kirby since day one.

“I thought it meant like I wanted to end the game. I’d never watched to the end, so that’s probably where I went wrong.”

Clearing up any doubt, Krissy insists she very much still knew Kirby was a Traitor, saying it was the one thing she was “certain” about in the game.

As for Kirby’s win? Krissy praises her for playing a “clever” game and says they never had the number of votes to take her down because people were “scared” to confront her.

Though she didn’t win, Krissy has no regrets about her gameplay on the show, though she admits her fiery confrontation with Rachael was a hard watch back.

“Afterwards, I was really shocked at how aggressive I was,” she admits, saying she learnt not to act from “sheer emotion” after that.

But the best part of the show for her? How proud her kids, Billy, Nicco and Milana, have been of her.

“I’ve never heard them be so proud about anything,” she gushes.

“When I was doing my business, and when I sold my business, my kids were too little to understand what I had achieved and what I had done.

“Whereas Housewives for them wasn’t always a proud moment. I think Housewives has a lot of controversy around it, whereas this is a game that all their friends love; people are so behind it. And I think it’s a moment for them that they’re really proud of me. And that, for me, is way better than $250,000.”

Rhys was one of the last four contestants standing, but they were the first to be banished in The Traitors Australia finale. 

From the beginning, the other contestants suspected they were a Traitor; however, it didn’t happen until later in the game when Kirby recruited them. 

In the end, the Australian Survivor star helped banish them, along with Keira Maguire and Krissy Marsh. 

While Rhys was mad about the decision at the time, watching it back, they tell New Idea that they understand how Kirby was in a difficult position.

Now, there are no hard feelings, and Rhys watched the final with Kirby and their other castmates, even holding hands at certain points.

“I just wanted her to know how happy I was and not in a kind of fake show business way, in a kind of way of ‘You worked really hard for this and you deserve this’,” they gush.

“We then just started like laughing about things, because it’s this weird experience that we went through together and it sounds so silly enough, but it’s like then suddenly you watch something and then you’re like, ‘Oh my god, remember when this thing happened and then this thing?’”

While fans slammed Kirby’s disloyalty, Rhys has defended his ally and hit back at critics who say she played a “dirty game”.

“I think she actually played an incredibly clean game, and I think there’s a really big difference between brutal and vindictive. And at no point was she ever vindictive,” Rhys says. 

After Rhys was banished, they were taken to a room and told not to look out the window, because they had a perfect view of the final three being filmed. 

“Everyone started clapping, and it got radioed through that Kirby had won. And I automatically started crying,” they say. 

Being a fan of the show, they knew they were in trouble being recruited as a late Traitor, but they were happy to have helped Kirby win.

Despite being determined to catch a Traitor, unfortunately for Josh, he was sent packing just before the finale.

While he hoped to get rid of a Traitor, Krissy and Keira sealed his fate. It was an extra blow because the former Bachelor star won the dagger, which is worth two votes.

Throughout the show, he came out swinging when it came to accusing Traitors, which he admits to New Idea was part of his demise.

“It’s probably poetry in motion to see me go out of the round table,” he shares, adding that he has a competitive streak.

“I would have loved to have got to the finale, because you don’t know what could have happened at that final stage. I was happy to fight tooth and nail at the round table and go home right at the end, to be honest with you. It’s not a bad way to bow out.”

While he was vocal as the competition progressed, he had no regrets about taking risks and being vocal, even if he made mistakes.

Thinking back on his time in the competition, he tells us that he should have looked at the bigger picture.

“If I could have my time over again, I would take a pad and pen, and I’d never taken notes in my life, so I made that mistake of not jotting down my thoughts and not being able to look back on day one or two,” he said.

“I was just going off pure emotion, which is not the smart way of playing it. You have to be logical as well, which I failed to do.”

As the numbers dwindled, everyone’s guard went up. While contestants had conversations with one another about who they wanted to banish, before his final round table, Josh says nobody spoke with him.

He also thinks that the truer Faithfuls and voices of reason, such as Tully, were already gone, so that meant there were “chaotic” stars left calling the shots.

“You’re not gonna be able to trust one another as much,” The Block star shares. So, that’s why those conversations weren’t happening at the end because we really weren’t 100 per cent sure about each other.”

If Tully hadn’t been murdered, he believes they would’ve played to make sure they made it to the very end. But when he realised she was sent home, he was “concerned”.

Despite not making it to the end, he said he’d do the show again in a heartbeat.

Throughout the show, the rest of her castmates considered Tully a “true Faithful.”

But that trust made her a perfect target, and her murder meant she narrowly missed out on making it through to the finale.

“Well, I never had a single finger pointed at me, my name was never written down,” she said when she read her letter about her elimination.

“That I think is a testament to the way I chose to play this game.”

Looking back on her time on the show, she exclusively tells New Idea that it was “pretty gut-wrenching”.

“I wrote in my journal that morning, I write in my journal every night and every morning, and I wrote I’ve never been more scared to be murdered,” she explains.

“I knew the fact that there was no suspicion on me made me completely useless to the Traitors.”

She initially thought she would be the first to go, but as the number of players dwindled, she knew her days were numbered.

“I had a feeling my luck had run out,” she continues.

“I was already on borrowed time; every day in there, I was shocked that I was still there playing with some of these really big players.

“But it’s still gut-wrenching. It’s hard not to be… I felt personally attacked.”

Throughout the game, she suspected Kirby was a Traitor, but didn’t vocalise it.

Watching it back, she thought the Survivor star protected her, but she was shocked to see that Kirby was the one to float the Big Brother Australia star’s name for murder.

Rhys, on the other hand, insisted that Tully should stay.

“I was surprised. I was shocked to see that it was Rhys that was fighting to keep me and not Kirby,” the reality star confessed.

“But again, I see Kirby’s gameplay,” Tully says about her decision to stay silent.

“She’s right, everyone trusted me. Had I gone to the round table the next night and said, ‘I know I haven’t thrown a name out ever, and I know I haven’t really gone to battle. I’m telling you all, it’s Kirby’, she would have been done. She sniffed it.”

While she was sad missing out on making it to the end, she was proud of how she played the game.

“I think that I played with integrity. I kept my morals. I kept my word,” Tully says.

With that, she was incredibly thankful to be a Faithful.

“I begged producers beforehand. I begged casting directors. I begged Gretel. I said, ‘Please, don’t do it to me.’ I don’t like being bad at things,” she admits.

“If I’m doing something, I want to do it properly. I want to do it well, and I knew that I couldn’t be a good Traitor.”

Even though he secured a shield for himself, it didn’t save him from being banished.

Despite maintaining his innocence and encouraging others to vote for Kirby, five of the seven remaining contestants voted against him.

Leading the charge was Josh Packham, who insisted that the Made in Bondi star wasn’t Faithful. However, Josh was wrong.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been a pleasure getting to know each and every one of you,” Lawson began before he revealed his status to the group.

“Truly, I consider you all friends now.”

“A wise woman once wrote to me, ‘Lawson, be yourself for everyone else’s taking’. Of course I’m a Faithful!”

Rachael was banished after a very divided round table, with Lawson also coming under fire.

Speaking to New Idea, Rachael admits she actually felt “relieved” to be banished and had “no fight” left in her, having suffered from the emotional toll of the show since day one.

“I walked straight out of that, out of the round table and I just burst into tears because it was like a release,” she tells us.

“I was like, oh my gosh. Finally it’s over. It was sad because I loved the game and I loved getting to know everyone, but I also felt like it was my time.

“It was the right time for me to go, I was hanging on to dear life every single day. I was like, keep it together, keep fighting, keep it together.

“And I was having to do that from day dot.”

Rachael didn’t have an easy time on the show, and was even called “fake” by Krissy Marsh, something she argues wasn’t in the spirit of the game, though she has no hard feelings now.

“I walked out of that round table [when Krissy accused me], and I did have a bit of a panic attack because I felt somewhat attacked. I felt somewhat small. I felt very withdrawn into myself. And that was a really hard time,” she confesses.

“Although I understand it was a game, I have no hard feelings towards it now, but that was unfair.

“Like, you can’t be screaming at each other over round tables, and those first few days, things were so heated between everyone. Even with how Henry was treated by the boys, like, it’s uncalled for because, at the baseline of everything, it is just a game.

“No-one should be screaming at each other just over a game. It makes for great TV, but if someone’s going to say to me, you can’t cry because this is the game, then you can’t yell at someone for the same reason. We all have to hold each other to the same standard.”

As for whether she has any regrets, Rachael admits she wishes she had defended herself more at the final round table, however, she ultimately doesn’t think it would have made that much of a difference.

“Even if I stayed in another night, I probably would have been voted out by the finale,” she insists.

“I just think that I would always have a question mark over my name. It was never like, she’s 100% Faithful, or she’s 100% a Traitor. was always just, there’s a possibility there. So I think people would have voted me out regardless to cut off that loose end.”

Despite their differences, Rachael thinks Krissy has what it takes to secure a Faithful win if the other women rally around her.

The twins were split up when Luke was sent home in a death match against his brother, Josh.

While Josh won the game of chance, Luke was sent packing, in a win for the Traitors, given he’s single-handedly taken down two already.

His exit has already sent the castle into chaos, with Rhys cleverly trying to frame Josh, implying the death-match may not have even happened.

Speaking exclusively with New Idea after the episode aired, Luke, who was vocal throughout his time on the show, tells us he knew his days were numbered.

“I felt people started looking at me more and listening to me, and kind of just wanting me just to be the main person and I was happy to do that, and that’s why when I went for Alex, I built built my momentum but then I knew I’d gone too far and I couldn’t take a step back from that point,” he explains.

Even though it was hard to leave, the reality star explains he was glad that he went home instead of Josh.

“I felt okay about that, and it was good that my brother got to continue on and that I went home,” he continues. “I almost would have felt worse taking out my brother, so I was I was quietly relieved that I could let my brother continue, because I kind of felt it was my responsibility for getting us in that mess in the first place.”

Away from the show, the pair are incredibly close, but decided to keep their distance from one another.

“We just knew our way to survive was to stay away from each other and use our social game with everyone, and we’re working two rooms at one time. And that’s kind of how it worked for us,” The Block star tells us.

“As the game moved on, we naturally found ourselves in the same room and by that stage, it was okay to be in the same room, and we felt people weren’t going to look on it with suspicion. But we certainly didn’t do that at the start just by default.”

He even admits that his twin suspected him as a Traitor at the beginning, because he was flushed in the face after they were picked.

But Luke was never suspicious of Josh.

“He was far too relaxed talking to people, and when I was watching him from afar, I could just see he was relaxed and calm and collected, and if he were a Traitor, I would have just seen the nerves on him,” Luke says.

Before he left his brother in the competition, he urged his brother not to make the same mistake as he did.

“I said to him, ‘Sit back, don’t just throw one heavy name around like I did.’ Just throw one or two names out there and sit back and let other people throw names, don’t be the centre of attention.”

It wasn’t a three-night victory for the Faithfuls as they banished one of their own: Claudia Bonifazio.

She was devastated to be brought under suspicion and, despite an emotional defence, failed to convince the group.

After catching two Traitors, Josh was confident that Claudia was the first and persuaded the whole table, but was forced to admit he was wrong.

Speaking to New Idea after her exit, Claudia shares her frustration that she sniffed out all the Traitors: Alvin, Kirby, Alex and Rhys, mentioning all their names.

“From the get go, I said it was Alvin and Kirby, and then eventually I said it was Alex as well,” she fumes.

“So when they told me that, I was like, ‘Okay, so are we going back in there?’ Like, there’s no way I’ve just gotten them right and you’ve said, no, you gotta go. Ridiculous.”

Looking back, she wishes she had been more vocal at the round table, but says it’s so hard when there is a group full of leading voices.

But the one thing she really wanted from the show was to be a Traitor!

“I was so upset I wasn’t [picked as a Traitor],” she admits.

“I thought I would make a great Traitor. I play a lot of mafia, and I feel like I’m great at that.

“So I was annoyed when I wasn’t, but I will say it feels very freeing when you’re faithful because you have nothing to hide, there’s no blockages.

“I think you could tell when someone’s a Traitor because they’re very closed in.”

If she had been picked, she’d have wanted Manaaki and Lawson scheming in the turret with her.

“I feel like no one would see [Lawson as a Traitor],” Claudia argues.

In fact, she thinks he’s got what it takes to win the show, as long as he doesn’t come under last-minute suspicion due to flying under the radar!

For Claudia, it will be Faithfuls Lawson and Krissy Marsh or Traitor Kirby winning the prize pot.

“Kirby is a master manipulator because she’ll take what everyone says,” Claudia explains.

“She goes, ‘Yeah, you know what? Water under the bridge, but let’s look this way’. She’s very good at just guiding people where she wants them to go and they take it.”

It was an incredible dual win for the Faithfuls, who voted out Traitor Alex the night after Alvin.

The pressure of being a Traitor became too much for Alex, and she crumbled under the pressure, failing to defend herself at her final round table.

While she loved being a Traitor, she tells New Idea that in the end, she was “ready to bow out”.

“When you’re a Traitor, it’s very mentally taxing, and especially because I am someone that does thrive on my human connection with people, and I really love people, and I love being vulnerable with people, and I love them being vulnerable with me,” she says, adding that she missed her three children while she was filming the show.

“Getting to know [the Faithful], and I think I just let my guard down. Having to be this person was just way too heavy for me in the end.”

Despite the incredibly emotional reveal, she explains that she was calm before entering the round table because she thought it was inevitable.

Even though she entered to win, the trade-off wasn’t worth it in the end.

“That entire day I had this calm about me, because I thought I had resigned to the fact that I was going to go home,” the star says.

“Everyone was acting really strange with me. Everyone distanced themselves from me.”

“No one could look me in the eye when they were talking to me. So I knew it was coming.”

Walking away from the show, knowing she didn’t have to lie to anyone anymore, she felt nothing but relief.

“When I left that round table, I walked around the corner, and I literally dropped to the floor,” Alex confesses.

“Like, I dropped to the floor and burst into tears, and the Executive Producer came and he hugged me and said, ‘You know, you’ve done a great job.'”

When it came to the votes, she says Kirby told her that she was going to put her name down. It was something Alex fully supported.

She explains that Kirby approached her before the elimination, explaining several Faithfuls had her in their sights.

“I said, ‘You need to look like you’re with them,'” she says about her fellow Traitor helping eliminate her. “I wanted her to protect herself.”

She also says her conversations with AJ were a driving catalyst for her demise in the game.

The pair were close from the very start, she says, and now, looking back, she realises he kept a close eye on her. They were in the same cars, and she says that during the early days, he insisted that they protect each other.

“I thought maybe he was feeding my ego, but I actually think he was he was working me,” the reality star admits.

So when she found out from Alvin that he said her name, she spiralled and lashed out at that infamous breakfast.

However, she explains that she also heard it from other contestants, but we didn’t get to see it.

AJ finally bit the dust and was caught by the Traitors after throwing Alvin under suspicion.

Getting the first Traitor out of the competition came with a high price for the Survivor player, who was sent packing.

And it was just as well, as speaking to camera after his exit, he named both Alex and Kirby as the Traitors with incredible accuracy.

As well as voting Alvin out, AJ had also left Alex rattled, accusing her of being a Traitor, before (unsuccessfully) attempting to win her over to save his own skin.

Alvin was the first Traitor to be caught out in a major win for the Faithfuls!

Luke was the first person to mention Alvin’s name, and the Traitor didn’t manage to convince his group of his innocence.

Alvin tried to shift the blame towards Rhys and Lawson, but it was AJ who ultimately pushed for Alvin.

It was a very divided vote, and Alex shockingly turned on her fellow Traitor and voted for Alvin.

Looking back on the Banishment, the MasterChef Australia star tells New Idea that it was hard to watch it back.

“It was upsetting to watch because I would have loved to stay in the game longer, but I think the game has started to take a toll on me anyway,” he admits.

“When I got banished, it was such a physical challenge, and I was mentally worn down because it’s hard work being a Faithful during the day and then a Traitor at night. I don’t think I was mentally prepared or had the strength to sort of defend myself.”

While he enjoyed being a Traitor, he explains that he hated putting on a front and lying to people he became close with.

“I remember vividly when I got banished, I got taken to the interview room to start doing all the interviews. I broke down. I just sort of started crying,” he says.

“And the burden was so heavy on my shoulders, and then it’s been lifted, and it’s a cry of relief. I was like, ‘Oh my god, I don’t have to put a mask on anymore.'”

While he actually predicted being the first Traitor to be caught out, he didn’t anticipate leaving so early.

“I’m only saying yes, because Kirby is very, very, very clever at anticipating steps like five steps ahead,” Alvin states. “And Alex has got a really strong social game.”

Alvin hoped to slip under the radar as the competition progressed, but he now believes this is what also led to his demise.

As a fan of the show and its international versions, he noticed that people who spoke up too soon were often eliminated, so he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

He watched the show in advance as “research”, but treated it more as lessons of what not to do.

As for his regrets? A Traitor at heart, he wishes they had eliminated Australian Survivor‘s AJ sooner, or murdered twins Josh and Luke Packham, who have become very vocal amongst the group.

The Traitors had Rob, Josh and Luke under consideration, but ultimately, it was the son of John Farnham who went home.

Kirby branded Rob as the most dangerous player on the Traitors following Dicko’s exit, sealing his fate and sending shockwaves through the group.

“I’m not surprised but I am disappointed,” he said upon his exit.

“It is what it is, congratulations, Traitors.”

Gamble’s journey on The Traitors ended in quite the dramatic twist when she was put on death row.

She was put at risk alongside Rhys, Claudia, and Rachael, but she was ultimately the one to fall victim to the Traitors.

Dicko might have been hoping that his gang LSD, standing for ‘Loyalty, Secrecy, Discipline’, would have his back, but the alliance was short-lived.

After Alex exposed his secret club, Dicko was ultimately voted out at the round table the following day, falling under suspicion of being a Traitor.

Speaking to New Idea, Dicko said he doesn’t have any regrets about his game plan, despite it not going the way he’d hoped.

“I knew there would be people in there stroking their chins and playing 3D chess,” he tells us.

“I decided to play noughts and crosses. I played a far simpler game called How Do I Stay Alive?

“So I played the percentage game and just tried to at least for the 50% that I could control, which was the banishment, I thought, I’ll try and mitigate against that.”

Dicko praised Alvin for playing a “fantastic” game when he accused him of “manipulating” the group – though ultimately, Alvin was the next to go home.

“I was grateful just to be given a chance to let this work out a bit because I could have been like Cam and gone before we got in,” he says of his early exit.

While Dicko thought Kirby would be the first Traitor banished, he admits the Survivor players can’t be underestimated.

“You have to be careful of those Survivors,” he says.

“They’ve done this before. They know how to play this game.

“They’re like a hybrid of a shark and a snake, you’ve got to watch them.”

With the privilege of hindsight, he’s betting on AJ or Kirby to win the 2026 series.

“They’re smart cookies, they’re operating on a different level,” he adds.

As the game progressed, Henry doubled down more on who he thought the Traitors were.

While he was right about Kirby, his hopes to rally the others to vote with him backfired. The others felt like they couldn’t talk him out of his theories, and chose to vote him out.

“I love everyone here; this experience has been the best experience,” he said before he revealed his status as a Faithful.

“I just love you all. Now it’s not just Traitors in this game, and there’s not just Faithfuls and bad Faithfuls, there’s also good Faithfuls, because they went on who they think is a Traitor.”

“Hopefully I left enough clues… Biggest anti-climax ever, but I’m a Faithful.”

Cosima De Vito was left in tears when she was unceremoniously voted out of the castle on August 11.

Despite not coming under fire in the first few days, the tide turned on her at the round table, and she found herself voted out.

Henry attempted to turn attention to Kirby and the twins, Josh and Luke Packham, but it was ultimately Cosima who lost the vote.

Reflecting on that moment, she tells New Idea that she was “completely blindsided”.

“I really thought at the time it was the Traitors had something to do with it, but they just sat back casually and watched it all unfold. I never ever in a million years thought that the twins would turn on me,” she says.

She and a handful of the other contestants were a part of Dicko’s LSD alliance, who turned their backs on her.

“You just don’t know who to trust. I think I was trusting the wrong people,” she continues, but adds that everyone reached out to her to apologise.

The Australian Idol star did praise Dicko, who had her back during the intense showdown. She says that from the moment she saw him enter the game, her nerves went away and she knew she had an ally.

“That was one of my favourite things of being on the show, just reuniting with him and just working with him, and I would have loved to have stayed,” the singer says.

When she looks back on her strategy, she admits that her loudness as an Italian did land her in hot water, but she wouldn’t have wanted it to be any other way.

While her elimination was sad, she was also “heartbroken” when the others chose to leave Cam behind in one of the challenges, which meant he couldn’t enter the game.

“At that point, part of me was like, I don’t want to be here anymore,” she confesses. “I don’t like that there’s no moral compass. Anyone can turn on you, and I can be in a game, but at the same time I can still have that empathy, but there was no empathy.”

“And to be in that kind of situation, it’s not a nice environment to be in, and I didn’t want to be in that environment anymore. But at the same time, I would have wanted to have stayed in the LSD with Dico and continued to play the game at the same time.”

Even though she admits she was “deflated and disappointed” that she wasn’t chosen as a Traitor, she doesn’t think she would’ve made it far if she was chosen.

“I’m too emotional, and I don’t think I would be able to hold up, because you need to literally lie to people,” she admits. “You have to lie to people, but you’ve also got to have that poker face. I don’t have a poker face at all.”

When asked about who she suspected was a Traitor, she reveals she didn’t pick Kirby or Alvin, but one small slip-up made her suspect Alex.

She says her and The Bachelor star bonded in the cars, and both got “emotional” about their kids. So when the group had to answer written by the Traitors asking if they thought Cosima was the most emotional, she had her suspicions.

Manaaki Hoepo had some good theories about the Traitors’ identities, but unfortunately for him, they sniffed him out.

Proving to be an early threat to the Traitors, Manaaki was the second celebrity to be murdered.

Reflecting on his time on the show, he tells New Idea that he expected his fate, and thinks of it as a compliment.

“I wasn’t surprised at all like I think because I came in and I dropped such big bombs and I was a lot of chaos and I’ve talked to Kirby and she’s like, ‘I like controlled chaos where you know you know what they’re going to say’, but she’s like ‘with you, I never knew what was coming out of your mouth,'” he shared in an exclusive chat.

“And I was like, to be fair, I don’t know what’s coming out of my mouth.”

That said, he also explains that he would’ve loved to have been a Traitor.

“Look, I do wish I was a Traitor, but whether or not I’d be a good Traitor is a different question,” he continued. “I’ve got a big mouth, and so I think I would have gotten myself in trouble pretty quickly.”

Despite his short stint on the show, he says he was happy with how he played the game and stayed true to himself.

“My whole game plan was just to play it day by day. If I win, I win. If I don’t, I don’t,” the Aussie Shore star then revealed.

“I’m all about experiences and I’m also really big on making making sure that I showcase my people and my culture on TV and so and like reality TV especially, I think that’s what my main reason was not for the money, but to kind of show people that look like me and act like me that you can be in spaces that you don’t necessarily see yourself in.”

Now that he’s watching along with everyone else, he’s praising the three Traitors and their strategies.

“Kirby was on my radar, but she wasn’t really like doing anything too much of me cause we were kind of distancing ourselves apart because we’re both switched on,” he explains.

“So, whether or not she was a Traitor or whether she was a Faithful, we knew that we’d be able to sniff it out. And I think that’s why she got rid of me as well.”

He says that she’s even inspired him to consider signing up for Australian Survivor, having fallen in love with the social games he had to play on The Traitors.

On the topic of the other Traitors, Manaaki suspected Alvin, describing him as sweet and unsuspecting, but lethal. He says he also had a hunch about Alex.

Now that he’s out of the show, he explains that he had “no clue” about Dicko’s LSD alliance, and says the Faithfuls need to reconsider their group mentality in Banishments, because it’s only sent Faithfuls home.

Shane Gould’s plan to save her own skin and push out Cam Merchant backfired at the first round table.

The Olympic swimmer, 69, came under questioning during the first grilling, despite being a Faithful.

Ian “Dicko” Dickson had rallied his alliance, whom he’s humorously named “LSD” for “Loyalty, Secrecy, Discipline”, to target her and successfully voted her out in round one.

However, the group was disappointed to learn she was actually a Faithful, leaving the Traitors to live on for another day.

Speaking exclusively to New Idea, Shane admits she was “devastated” to leave the show, and didn’t realise it would be her until the votes were revealed.

“At the round table, when there were about four or five votes, I thought, oh, I didn’t read this right,” she tells us.

“There were a lot of conversations and people had their say, you know, saying why they picked my name.”

“And I thought, ‘Oh, am I like that? And did they read me like that?’ But ultimately it was, ‘Shane, you didn’t tell us that you won Survivor’.”

“I just thought, well, it’s got nothing to do with this game. This game is a different game. It’s a different premise.”

“It’s years later. Let’s just play the game for what it is now, not from the people in their past experiences.”

Shane says she felt she was targeted because she won Australian Survivor in 2018, with the key drama with Cam only adding to suspicion.

So, does she regret voting Cam out instead of going home herself?

“I hope [Cam will return],” she says, conceding she could have set herself up for a comeback if she’d left instead.

“It all happens so quickly, and you’ve got to make really quick decisions.”

“A lot of those reality TV shows, some of them aren’t really real, but Traitors and Survivor that I’ve played, they’re about as real as you can get.”

“It’s a compression of life, and often you have to make hard decisions in critical situations.”

“So it was hard, and sometimes we make the wrong decision.”

Shane was wrongly pegged as a Traitor, but she was no wiser about their identities, steadfastly believing Rhys Nicholson was a Traitor because of his confidence.

Watching the show back, she says Traitor Kirby is the person who surprised her the most, saying she thinks she’s got what it takes to win the series.

While Shane’s Traitors journey didn’t go as she’d hoped, she says she still learnt valuable life lessons that she will take with her when she turns 70 in November.

Kween Kong was the first celebrity to be banished from the castle, with Traitors Alex, Kirby and Alvin making her their first murder victim.

The drag queen had caused a stir by claiming that she heard the vinyl of Kirby’s jacket rustle during the Traitors’ selection, risking her being exposed early.

However, Kirby had not been told the rumours, putting her in a safe position to murder Kween without coming under suspicion from the Faithfuls.

Kween’s murder caused a huge stir in the castle, but Kirby managed to survive the first round table, with the backing of Dicko’s alliance LSD.

Speaking to New Idea, Kween admits she knew she was going to be an early target after Kirby asked her if she’d heard her trying to take her jacket off – which was a white lie, of course.

“She knew, and I knew she knew,” Kween tells us.

“My ears are sensitive, but also I literally thought there would have been like some music because we could hear everything!”

“I could hear footsteps; I knew exactly where Gretel was. You could hear ‘boom, boom, boom’. And then the [rustle] sound [of Kirby’s jacket].”

“That’s why I went to Rhys, but Alvin was there, and I didn’t realise Alvin was there because he’s a quiet little assassin!”

Despite that, Kween has no regrets and doesn’t think she could have played it any better, even if that meant her early demise.

She insists the Traitors were right to kill her off, given she had already pegged both Kirby and Alex as Traitors and says her entrance at breakfast in full drag would have won everyone over.

However, Kween admits she had thought to try and bargain and make a deal with Kirby for her own safety, or been picked as a Traitor to begin with!

“I think it is such a missed opportunity by Channel 10 and by Gretel to not choose me as a Traitor because that would have been amazing,” she says.

“No one would have picked it. I would have had a lot more fun, I think.”

As for her first victim? It’s no surprise to hear Kween would have killed off Kirby first.

“Kirby’s the biggest competition, and I definitely feel like Kirby’s got what it takes [to win],” Kween teases.

Cam Merchant was the first celebrity to go home, getting evicted before he even set foot in the castle.

His journey was devastatingly cut short when Shane was given the choice to go home herself, or send someone else home.

Shane decided to boot Cam from the competition, in a twist that Cam said he saw coming a mile off.

“My heart sank, and my gut dropped straight away. I just had this feeling,” he told New Idea.

“I had this really bizarre feeling straight away that that’s what was gonna happen.”

While Shane insists her choice was completely “random”, Cam said he had made peace with his departure.

But, in a Traitors-style twist, he had the chance for a secret return, with all of his friends convinced he’d be back for the long haul.

“Friends called me, and they’re like, ‘Oh, mate, I’m seeing you everywhere’. And they’re like, ‘I believe that you win’,” he said.

“They’re like, ‘You win it. I know you win it’. ‘Why would you think that?’ I said, and [they said] ‘You told us this story, and I don’t believe it, but I reckon you do’. I’m like, ‘Yeah, mate, go with that then, go with that’.”

Unluckily for Cam, he was left behind along with $10,000 by the other celebrities, ending his hopes of a return in the contest.