I was a contestant on The Traitors and here are some secrets from the show bosses you don’t want to know

A former contestant from The Traitors has revealed some secrets about the hit BBC One show.

Alex Gray was a contestant in series one of the show and remained a stalwart throughout his time in the game.

The presenter and actress refused to be recruited as a traitor and ended up being murdered in episode eight.

speaks to Cosmopolitan BritainAlex revealed that all contestants taking part must undergo psychological assessments to ensure they are mentally fit to take part.

To prepare, Alex shared how she read two books on the psychology of lying but felt they were of no help.

The Londoner admitted it was ‘very difficult’ to detect if someone was lying and she also found it difficult to sleep in the castle because she couldn’t switch off her brain.

She said: ‘The cameras are on you all day long. There was no packing it away like with a board game – and even when you’re no longer in the castle, you still brood over things that happened; ‘What if I had done it differently? Perhaps this person is a traitor?’

Alex also revealed that there is one welfare person associated with every two participants, and participants also have the opportunity to speak to a psychologist to ‘ground yourself again’.

The staff would also give contestants a summary of each episode before it aired to “prepare you mentally”.

Alex believes that presenter Claudia Winkleman is under instructions not to talk too much to the participants.

She said: ‘It was clear that she wanted to talk to us and get to know us, but sometimes she would come and get chatty and it was clear that someone was saying something in her ear and she would say, ‘I’m sorry guys i gotta go!’ I think they wanted her to keep this scary principal role.’

It comes after this year’s contestant Maia Gouveia apparently used a company credit card after being fired from her job for going AWOL on holiday in Trinidad.

The BBC contestant, 25, was employed by gift company Bubblegum Stuff as their social media manager last year but was sacked after three months when she suddenly stopped turning up for work.

Maia, whose sister Armani, 28, appeared alongside her in the hit TV series before she was exposed as a traitor, failed to notify her bosses of a holiday to Trinidad in February 2024, leading to her contract being terminated .

It was six months after she left the company, which is owned by Apprentice 2016 runner-up Courtney Wood, 38, that Maia apparently used the company’s credit card without authorization to make several purchases after saving the details for her personal Apple Pay.

The credit card was immediately blocked and the incident reported to the police, with Maia later claiming that the charges on the card were made by accident.

Maia, who boasts 152.7K followers on TikTok, stars in the current season of The Traitors and was shocked after discovering co-star and sister Armani had been secretly working to murder other players.

A source close to Maia said: ‘Maia deeply regrets the mistakes she made during her work with Bubblegum Stuff and her actions afterwards.

‘She was going through a tough time as a new mother and wished she behaved differently.

‘Maia’s father visited the Bubblegum Stuff offices to make amends after the credit incident was revealed, while Courtney decided not to take the matter further.’

The mother, who is pregnant with her second baby, is one of 25 contestants on The Traitors this year competing for a potential prize pool of £120,000.

Her older sister Armani worked undercover as one of three traitors, but was banished during Friday night’s episode.

Armani’s fate was sealed after Maia admitted she was 60 percent sure her sister was a traitor and the cast voted to eliminate her from the competition.

Speaking ahead of her appearance on the show, Maia admitted to being a ‘natural liar’ and was inspired to sign up after watching previous series and feeling she could do better.

She said: ‘I watched the last series when it aired and I was so invested. I always thought to myself, I could do better.

‘I literally thought you guys are not lying properly, you are not lying correctly, there are too many emotions going on, this is money.

MailOnline has contacted a spokesman for Traitors for comment.