The Traitors is officially back on our screens, with the BBC reality show returning for season three. And from Claudia Winkleman’s iconic knitwear to the behind the scenes secrets, including the trick to getting cast on the reality show, season three is proving to be one for the ages.
The premise sees 25 contestants go head to head, secretly divided into ‘Faithfuls’ and ‘Traitors’, with the two teams working against each other to eliminate players – all for the £120,000 prize pot.
It is the line-up for The Traitors that made headlines this week, with many of 2025’s new contestants opting to keep parts of their real lives private in order to gain trust and give them an advantage in the game.
This includes a soldier posing as a nail technician, an ordained priest choosing to keep her job under wraps and a Londoner using a welsh accent to “appear more trustworthy”.
However, UK viewers are convinced of another hidden twist, with a theory going viral that two of season three’s contestants are secretly related.
The duo in question? Freddie, a 20-year-old politics student from Peterborough, and Francesca, a 44-year-old Interior designer from East Sussex.
The two contestants are known to have formed a sweet mother-and-son like bond in the show. And after a particularly dramatic round table discussion, where Freddie narrowly avoided elimination, he became upset – particularly with the fact that Francesca had voted for him to be banished.
“It was just horrible when you feel like everyone’s talking about you and attacking you. It’s a bit upsetting but it is what it is,” Freddie later explained to camera.
“Seeing Frankie vote for me, that felt like a knife through the heart,” he added. “Frankie’s like a mum to me in here so that was really upsetting.”
Francesca also expressed her sadness at the situation, telling the camera: “I have a son a similar age to him.”
Viewers have since taken to social media with their predictions that Francesca and Freddie are mother and son, believing that the secret relation will be revealed later in the season as a plot twist.
“I’ve got four sons, and I think they just see me as mum, and that I do Interior Design,” Francesca previously told the BBC. “I don’t think they even realise what that involves. I believe they literally think I just plump cushions and hang some curtains.”
She continued: “I also entered the competition on a personal level which was I really wanted to challenge myself. I suppose part of me wants to show my sons that anything’s possible.”
The Traitors is available to watch on BBC, with new episodes released every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.