The Traitor’s contestant Sonja from Lancashire speaks out following banishment

The 66-year-old Volunteer Business Mentor was banished by her fellow contestants last week after wrongly being accused of being a Traitor.

As secretive as the traitors themselves, the BBC was unable to put us into contact with Sonja personally but she has opened up both to the BBC and Radio Times since exiting the show so take a look at some of her most revealing comments below:

How did Sonja feel to be the first to be banished?

Sonja answered: “Well, being the first to be banished is a tricky one. But at the same time people don’t really know you yet. I did make some great friends there and I’ve had the nicest, cuddliest, friendliest banishment in the history of The Traitors because people genuinely were, like “We can’t believe it’s you but there’s evidence here so probably you are, and can we still come and see you and will you knit me a hat?” They all put lots of kisses on their boards so, there was nothing remotely offensive or upsetting, it was really quite nice.” 

Does she have any regrets about the show?

Sonja admitted she wished she had been a traitor, explaining “I think I work better in a tense environment, and that’s where I’ve tended to work all my life, in high pressure environments. I think it just became party time when I was a Faithful. Maybe as a Traitor it would have been different.”

On whether she would do anything differently, Sonja said: “What I should have done is concentrate on a strategy for how to be a Faithful and then execute on it instead of thinking ‘I’ll have a house party for a couple of days and then I’ll get round to it.’

“I think if I had been a Traitor I would have tried harder. I kind of relaxed and let my guard down and became a very chilled out Faithful."

What was it like actually doing the show?

Reflecting on what the first day was like, Sonja said: “There was excitement but then there was that feeling that something terrible might happen any second."

She explained: "When we were together for the first time, we all remembered that last time, something terrible happened the moment they all got together with two sent away so we were all feeling like something like that was about to happen now!

“When we all saw Claudia, it was so exciting. She came out of the castle, welcomed us very warmly and we started to realise that the game was really beginning. She was great.”

Once it was clear they would all be safe for the timebeing, the contestants were welcomed into the Traitor's castle with Sonja commenting: “My first impressions going into the castle were that it was a lot bigger than you think it’s going to be.

“It’s absolutely full of atmosphere and history and you really felt you were at the start of an exciting journey.”

What were her first impressions of the other contestants?

Sonja said: “Meeting people for the first time was interesting because I met half the people on the train journey and then saw the rest at the Castle. There was no particular standout, it was just so interesting to see a diverse group. A lovely bunch of interesting people.”

What was her highlight of the experience?

Sonja answered: “I think a highlight of the experience was probably the second mission, the bird mission, it was just so funny. I really enjoyed it, it was hilarious. We were all running around, and we were mimicking the birds. It was very much team playing and I think that would be my highlight.”

What will she take away from the experience?

Sonja said: “I think the takeaway is, even in those two short days you look at 22 people who just look like a group of regular people but there were some incredible stories in there and some amazing bravery. It makes you think, when you look at a group of people you don’t really know what you’re seeing. There’s much more to it and I think that was really good.”

Turning her attention to what she's learnt about herself, Sonja added: “I’ve definitely learnt that I should concentrate a bit more on the job at hand!”

Was Sonja surprised to find out fellow Lancashire based contestants, Diane and Ross were mother and son?

Sonja told Radio Times: "I wasn't particularly shocked about that at all… Just by sheer coincidence, the three of us live quite close together, but we hadn't met before. But our accent is very similar. And I just thought there's a lot of people from our little area... So I wasn't particularly surprised, because then I thought, 'That's why there's two, but it so happens three, in one of those little areas.'"

The last thing audiences saw was that Traitor Ash could be about to be banished, did Sonja suspect any of the Traitors?

Also speaking to Radio Times, Sonja said: “I certainly didn't suspect two of them. But Ash I did. It was melon gate. I always had melon in the morning and Ash was sat behind the melon, and I thought, 'Oh, I'm gonna practise this.'

"I sort of said, 'Are you a Traitor?' Then I saw in her eyes, this absolute shock and horror, and I thought, 'Oops, I hit a nerve there.' So that was a bit of good luck.

"And then Paul as well, I was pretty suspicious of Paul, because he is a really nice guy and I met him on the railway station. We were probably one of the early ones at that station, so we were chatting a little bit there, as you may have seen. He was just so nice. "And then the day after Claudia had chosen her Traitors, he went, like, supersonically nice. I just noticed a step change in the level of his total nicety. And I thought, 'Blimey, you've got super nice so perhaps, maybe – yeah, interesting...'"