For those of us who are glued to the show every week, we know that The Traitors can be really quite brutal. From risky challenges to contestants betraying each other left, right and centre, the show is often more cut-throat than your average competiton show.

However, it doesn’t end at the game itself.

We’ve previously revealed that the contestants don’t actually sleep at the castle itself (despite what we’re led to believe), and once they arrive at their sleeping quarters, they’re not allowed to speak to or see anybody else. They can’t even have their phones or access to streaming services.

Yeesh.

However, according to one previous contestant, the worst part of the show isn’t these sleeping conditions – or even the challenges the faithfuls and traitors take part in to boost up their prize pot.

Instead, it’s the way that those who are banished leave the castle, according to season one winner Meryl Williams.

During a Q&A on TikTok back in 2022, Meryl was asked by a fan of the show: “Are you able to say a proper goodbye with people that get banished?”

“No, that’s a really shit thing,” she replied. “When [fellow contestant] Alyssa got banished... I was standing waiting to give her a hug and we couldn’t even give each other a hug.

“That was the last time I got to see her. So no, that’s probably the worst part, we don’t even get to properly say goodbye to them.”

Another former contestant from season one, Alex Gray, revealed to Cosmopolitan Magazine just how tough this process can be.

“When you’re banished, you’re whisked away in a car and put on a plane back home,” she recalled. “When you’re murdered, you’re told the next morning when the others go to breakfast.

“You’re not told anything [about who the Traitors are]. Then you’re obviously at home worrying about the edit and what’s going to make the cut, how it’s going to come across. You’re reliving it, and it’s interesting because you have your own memory of it.”

Suitably dramatic.

The Traitors airs on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights BBC One at 9pm.