STARS of TV’s The Traitors are embroiled in a tale of mystery and intrigue befitting of the back- stabbing show – complete with a miracle baby twist.
On one side is winner Harry Clark, 23, champion of this year’s double-crossing contest hosted by Claudia Winkleman, while on the other is Charlotte Chilton, 32, one of his rivals on the hit BBC One series.
Charlotte was married to a woman when she signed for the programme, but has now confirmed that following a night of passion at The Traitors after-party, she is pregnant and intends to raise the child alone.
But the biggest bombshell of all is her claim that the father is pop star Conor Maynard, who just so happens to be the brother of Harry’s girlfriend, Anna.
A TV insider said: “People want Harry to take sides and are getting annoyed that he won’t.
“It’s an incredibly messy, tangled web of claims and counterclaims that has spun around The Traitors in the most unexpected way.
“The irony of it is not lost on any of those involved, either.
“Harry is doing his best to keep out of it, which is understandable — not least because he is blameless in the situation. But he is obviously associated with both the show and the Maynard family.
“And with every passing day, the plot seems to thicken.”
‘I was rude as hell’
The latest twist in the tale came on Saturday, when Charlotte’s estranged wife, Laura Chilton, piled in to insist that at the time of the alleged conception with Conor, she and Charlotte were still very much a married couple.
Charlotte claimed they had split up before the bash, held at the luxurious Raffles nightclub in West London on the same night as the programme’s January 26 finale.
In a newspaper interview, Laura said: “She is making out to everyone that we weren’t together at the time — I want to make it clear we were.”
Charlotte, a recruitment manager from Warwickshire, also insisted that Harry, who was a “traitor” on the show, had pressured her to attend the event because he knew Can’t Say No singer Conor fancied her.
Since dating Anna Maynard, Harry had become close to Conor and his YouTuber brother Jack Maynard, who appeared on I’m A Celebrity in 2017 but had to leave after it emerged the online star had used homophobic language in old social media posts.
Talking to the newspaper, Charlotte added: “He wanted to meet me and he knew I was newly single. I very nearly didn’t go because I didn’t even know who Conor Maynard is. Harry was putting on the pressure.
“Conor was next to me all night pursuing me. I was rude as hell to him for hours, which apparently was the thing he liked.
“But he was also a gentleman. I’d just got out of a really toxic relationship, and I was vulnerable to someone being nice to me.”
But Laura contradicted that version of events, saying: “She went down to London for the wrap party.
“I read she had been forced to go down — she wasn’t forced to go at all.
“She was seizing that opportunity. I had a feeling something had gone on because she decided she would stay an extra day, which was obviously the night she got with this Conor Maynard, which I had caught wind of as she mentioned to me he had a crush on her and she wasn’t interested. We were still together (at the time).”
Charlotte, who was a “faithful” when she was on the show, was indeed photographed wearing her wedding ring at the wrap party.
She had been with telecoms engineer Laura for seven years after meeting online, and says she had previously suffered seven miscarriages while in her twenties.
That included a failed round of IVF.
After being told she would probably never have a child, Charlotte is now five months pregnant — a fact she announced in April.
Only now, however, has she confirmed the identity of the alleged father and the name she intends to give her daughter.
In an Instagram video post last week, Charlotte said: “Conor is his name. I met him after The Traitors wrap party and we started seeing each other and Penelope arrived in my tummy!”
But she revealed not all the contestants on The Traitors have supported her since she made the shock announcement.
Charlotte explained: “My friends and family are behind me, the cast are behind me . . . and when I say ‘the cast’, I mean the majority of the cast.”
It’s not clear which of the programme’s stars are not supporting Charlotte, as none of them has made a public statement.
The group has stayed close since the show finished five months ago.
But Mollie Pearce, who was famously tricked into letting Harry win the prize pot of £95,150, does not follow him on Instagram — which is viewed by most Millennials as the ultimate shun.
However Mollie and Charlotte do follow one another, as do most of the other contestants from this year’s series.
‘I can be gullible’
Although Charlotte left the show in episode nine, when she was wrongly considered to be a traitor, she made a big impression on her fellow competitors, many of whom now have her back.
When she first arrived at Ardross Castle, she said she actually hoped to be a traitor.
Talking about her approach to the contest beforehand, she added: “I think I’m really good at pretending I don’t know what’s going on, when actually I have a very good idea. I play the ditzy one. My plan is to be under- estimated and kill with kindness.”
She added: “I can also be quite gullible.”
Fellow Traitors contestants Charlie Bees and Ash Bibi were among those who quickly posted messages of support following Charlotte’s claims about her baby’s father last week.
Speaking before the update, she said: “I’ve really toyed with whether this is the right thing to do or not.
“I’ve sort of hidden a lot of things in protection of somebody else through this process. I decided that the best thing is to always be open and honest. Essentially, I have not named the father in protection of him. I’m prepared to do this alone, but I’m not prepared to have my daughter have to grow up and not be able to say who her father is, or should I say, birth father, or hide it from her.
“She deserves to know where she comes from. I’m not a secret, she’s not a dirty secret.
“I won’t be treated like one any more, I won’t be silenced.”
She also claimed that, after her fling with Conor fizzled out and she discovered she was pregnant, she went to him with the news.
Charlotte said: “The minute I started talking about co-parenting and being understanding of his work schedule, he obviously was a bit disappointed I was doing that.”
Over the weekend, Conor was photographed having a tense exchange with a woman believed to be his girlfriend in South West London as they attended a party to celebrate sister Anna’s birthday.
Meanwhile, as well as denying many of Charlotte’s claims, her wife Laura has called on her to stop drawing so much attention to the situation.
She added: “I think, more than anything, people need to grow up — stop trying to grab a headline by revealing who the father of her baby is and just take accountability and some responsibility.
“All jokes aside, there is another life coming into this now.
“I spoke to Charlotte last night and just said, ‘Stop it, stop feeding this media attention’.
“But it is becoming clear it is what she wants.”
Representatives for Conor, Charlotte, Mollie and Harry were contacted for comment.
