Celebrity Traitors winner Sebastian Croft changed strategy at last minute

The Celebrity Traitors winner Sebastian Croft has said he changed strategy at the last minute during the final of the BBC reality gameshow.

The 24-year-old Heartstopper star won £41,500 for his chosen charity, Choose Love, as he and comedian Romesh Ranganathan were the last two players remaining at the firepit as faithfuls.

Speaking about his strategy on the show, Croft said: “I think until about an hour and a half before, I was so split between whether I was going to go with James (Blunt) until the end or with Romesh and (King) Kenny.

“I wrote a list of everything that I thought James, Romesh and Kenny had done that was faithful since Hannah (Fry)’s banishment and the traitors last recruited, and my list for Romesh was really long.

Croft and Ranganathan with presenter Claudia Winkleman (BBC/Studio Lambert/PA)

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“My list for James was even longer, and my list for Kenny was almost non-existent, and then when we went to four and Kenny voted to end the game.

“I just knew he was a traitor, and I was banking on James voting for Kenny, so it would be a split vote, because if he’d gone for Romesh, James would have gone.

“And then it was just like Romesh seemed convinced that James was traitor, so I was like, ‘shit, I have a big job to do’, and for whatever reason, Romesh and I just really trusted each other.”

Despite winning the show, Croft said he was initially “disappointed” to have been chosen as a faithful, but said he was now “thrilled” with his role in hindsight.

He added: “The reason I was disappointed was because I think I had a better chance of winning as a traitor, because as a traitor, you can only go if you’re banished, and my big worry in the game as a faithful was always being murdered.

The final took place on Friday (BBC/Studio Lambert)

“I was never that worried about the roundtables, because I think they are about connecting with people and talking your way out of things, both of which I’m fairly good at.

“Whereas murder is more about who’s a threat, and so as soon as I was chosen as a faithful, I trusted Claudia (Winkleman, the show’s presenter), and I trusted the process, and though this is the role I’ve been given, and now I need to play it to its fullest.

“And so operation fly under the radar began. It carried on until the murders were complete. It’s amazing.”