Harry Clark, star of BBC The Traitors, acknowledges the drastic toll the show took on his health

Harry Clark, the winner of The Traitors’ second season, has opened out about his experience recording the demanding game on the BBC reality show.
BBC The Traitors star Harry Clark has said that the show has a bad effect on his health.

The 23-year-old, who took home an incredible £95,150 in the grand final, said that it got so tough that he had to keep telling himself “why he was there.”

Harry told the Tom Dean Medal Machine podcast that he had tricked his pal Mollie Pierce into thinking he was on her side when in reality he was a traitor.

“At the start of The Traitors, I would remind myself why I’m here every three or four days.” But toward the end, he admitted he had to do this every five minutes because it was so difficult.

According to the Mirror, the participants might be recording for up to 18 hours each day before going to bed. But it wasn’t until everyone else had returned to their quarters that the traitors went to the tower to decide who would be “murdered” that night.

“So you just had to pretend you’re as tired as everyone else, but not more tired,” he explained.

But Harry said the show looked after everyone really well, adding: “It’s just a game, isn’t it? So that’s part and parcel of the game.”

The former British Army engineer from Slough also claimed that he did not watch the first series because he wanted to approach the show with a new perspective and not try to replicate a previous method. He stated that his strategy was to be himself and avoid overthinking things before they occurred, as he believed this could lead a contestant to “go into a spiral”.

Claudia Winkleman has hosted two seasons of the game show, which features members of the public attempting to determine who among them are “faithfuls” and who are “traitors” since its debut at the end of 2022.

When the participants arrive, they can choose to be faithful or traitors to the host. Harry admitted that he had always wanted to be a traitor but was afraid he would not get the chance after “crumbling” in front of the “powerful” Claudia.

“I’d met her and I was like, ‘Oh no, she’s going to think that he won’t be able to handle it’ because I just felt like I crumbled,” he said, before adding: “Because she’s actually such a powerful woman.”

“She was speaking to me and I was sinking down into my chair. I was trying to speak to Claudia and I couldn’t. I was like, ‘What is happening?’ Because normally I can talk to anyone. But she was such a strong character.

“Clark shared that it was his “dream” to be on The Traitors before the selection process, but when Winkleman started choosing people, he second guessed himself. In his words: “It’s a lot, the pressure and the intensity of that building up. And then she tapped me and it was like, ‘OK, now I need to do that. The game starts’.”