The Traitors’ fan favourite Linda Rands was finally eliminated from the BBC show last night after the remaining Faithfuls voted for her to be banished.
Suspicion had been surrounding the 70-year-old since day one, with Faithful Jake repeatedly accusing Linda of being deceitful after she noticeably turned her head to face host Claudia Winkleman in the first episode when she addressed the three Traitors.
Despite this, Linda still managed to survive seven episodes of the intense show with her name coming up at the Round Table at least once every week before the Faithfuls finally managed to catch her as a team.
Fellow Traitor Minah also ditched her ‘sisterhood’ pledge and went behind Linda’s back to banish her after receiving her ‘blessing’ as the retired opera singer admitted she knew her time was up as she was struggling with a ‘strategy’.
Minah followed a similar tactic when she voted to banish Traitor Armani earlier in the show and, after Linda’s exit last night, she is the only remaining traitor in the Scottish castle with her only hope now being Charlotte accepting her recruitment offer.
Linda also faced a brutal accusation from Fozia after she was murdered during last night’s episode as the 50-year-old came face to face with the two Traitors who had sent her packing.
She shouted at Linda: “You’re not going to last, get a good night’s sleep tonight because you’re going next” to which Linda replied: “Get over it.”
The opera singer has now broken her silence after her time on the show has come to an end, saying she feels “proud” of how long she managed to stay in the game.
After last night’s banishment, the purple haired 70-year-old confessed she had regretted saying she would be a Traitor in the first place.
She admitted: “I have to say when Claudia was going around the table I started to panic, thinking ‘no I don’t want to be one, don’t choose me’.”
She also acknowledged that her downfall was not having a clear game plan. Linda said: “I didn’t really have a strategy, I think it was just to not let people know I was a Traitor. I played the jokey person, and that did work, and I am a bit of an air-head so that came over as well.”
But her randomness may very well be the thing that caught her out in the end as she said: “When I left, that was one of the things they mentioned. They said ‘you’re so random in what you do and that’s why we think you’re a Traitor’.
“If you ask anyone in my family, they’d say that’s me, that’s who I am, I’m very random! So, it was really funny they picked up on that.”
Despite not winning the show, Linda is thrilled with how her experience went. She remarked: “I’m really proud that I wasn’t the first Traitor who left. I’m proud that I made it that far because I seriously thought I’d go out pretty quickly.”
But she is leaving with one regret and that is not standing up for herself more against the rest of the group. She commented: “I would have been more vocal, but it’s difficult because everyone has things to say, and I was just listening. Because I was a Traitor and knew who the Traitors were, it was difficult to pick people to accuse because I knew they weren’t.”
After being banished at the Round Table, Linda stood up and addressed her fellow co-stars as she said: “I’ve had the most amazing time, this has been the pinnacle of my life and to experience this at my age and get this far, I’ve had a whale of a time, so thanks for it. I am a Traitor.”
Viewers will need to tune back in tonight to discover if Minah is successful in recruiting “Welsh” Charlotte from London as a fellow Traitor or if she chooses to be automatically murdered instead.
The third series of the BBC show has proven to be the most popular yet with the first episode being watched by over nine million viewers, making it the most successful in the show’s history.
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