He came so close to a perfect run and was within touching distance of the charity prize money on The Celebrity Traitors’ first series, but don’t expect to see Joe Marler back on reality TV anytime soon.
The former rugby union player, 35, entered the Scottish Highlands castle earlier this year to play the game of a lifetime as Claudia Winkleman’s hit BBC series launched a showbiz edition.
But unfortunately for Joe and his fellow loyal Faithfuls, Nick Mohammed and David Olusoga, it was unsuspecting Traitor Alan Carr who triumphed, coming clean with his guilt to secure an £87,500 win.
Speaking exclusively to Metro amid the comedown from a whirlwind few weeks as millions tuned in for the backstabbing and betrayal, Joe gave us a hint of whether he now has the TV game show bug.
Spoiler: he doesn’t.
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Asked whether appearing on Celebrity Traitors has made him want to leap into the likes of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, the retired sportsman replied emphatically: ‘No.
‘I don’t think reality is for me, as much fun as I had.
‘People have asked me, but I’m not doing Strictly because I can’t dance. I’m not going on I’m A Celeb because I’m claustrophobic and also get really hungry, so I’d be a nightmare in there.’
The Traitors universe might not be the last place you see him with his fellow cast members, though, as Joe teased: ‘It’s given me a little bit of inspiration to potentially try and make something with someone like Joe Wilkinson or Nick Mohammed, to find something meaningful that we can film together and just go and have some fun.’
‘But I’m still very much just a retired rugby player trying to pay off his mortgage,’ he joked.
You’ll notice that Joe speaks with nothing but love towards Nick, despite the actor voting to banish him at the last moment.
In a moment of truly epic television between the final four, the Ted Lasso star wrote Joe’s name on his chalkboard, as did comedian Alan and historian David.
At the time, Joe told cameras how much it ‘hurt to be stabbed in the back last minute’, having formed the ultimate bromance with Nick especially throughout the game, and believing they were sprinting towards the win together.
Alas, Joe’s previous success in voting to banish Traitor Cat Burns sealed his fate, raising suspicions among the surviving players about what he knew.
But it’s all water under the bridge now, as Joe explained to us: ‘It wasn’t for a couple of weeks that I got to properly debrief with Nick, and I was like, “What changed, mate? I thought we were going for it?”
‘And turns out, I was just a little bit creepy. Maybe I was a little bit too intense with him when I said, “Mate, you’re 100% Faithful; I just want us to be in the final.”
‘I was a bit too much for him. And it made him feel like, “He could be a Traitor here. He’s weirded me out.”
‘But I love Nick to bits; it’s all part of the game, and we’re still really good friends now; it was great fun.’
Joe was ultimately taken aback by the ‘intensity’ of the format, having also admitted he felt ‘out of his depth’ due to the calibre of celebrity contestants, such as Sir Stephen Fry and Celia Imrie. Although this could’ve been an advantage in disguise, considering he made it further than they did.
‘A lot of them didn’t really know who I was because rugby’s not massive. So in some ways, that actually worked in my favour, because they just took me on face value, which is what I did in there.
‘You’ve got Stephen Fry, who’s a national treasure, but everyone’s a human, which is part of the beauty of the game. The game puts everyone on a human level regardless of their status or what they’ve done outside of it.’
Thankfully, Joe assured us that his levels of trust are still intact (he’s a proudly ‘naturally negative and pessimistic person’ anyway), even if the other players casting doubt on his authenticity did, at times, make him employ ‘defence mechanisms’.
‘I just got so lost in the game, and at no point was I thinking of how it was coming across or how I should behave,’ he added of the reaction from audiences.
‘I guess, looking back, it was quite exposing, but I was lucky with a heavy edit. A real heavy edit…’
As for his next chapter following the success of Celeb Traitors, Joe is ditching the Scottish castle for something sunnier, teaming up with loveholidays to remind people that winter doesn’t last forever.
Photos capture him on his own unique holiday—at the side of a main road in London, topping up his tan—as research of 2,000 working adults finds 76% say a lack of daylight makes them want to holiday in a hot place.
‘When it gets dark, it’s easy to feel down, but it’s only for a few months a year,’ said Joe. ‘I’m excited to be teaming up with loveholidays to go on a mini-break in their billboard, to show people there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and the sun is never far away.’
On how he practises self-care in the darker times, he added: ‘For me, personally, it’s about making time for myself. Making sure I can recharge so I’m in a better place for my family and my friends.
‘I still try and go cold-water swimming, or bobbing—I can’t swim; that’s why it’s bobbing—at least once a week to reset my brain and attack the new week ahead.
‘There’s definitely something out there for everyone.’
Joe Marler enjoys the sun in loveholidays billboard—book your own getaway now at www.loveholidays.com.
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