James Blunt has said he thought Romesh Ranganathan “betrayed” him during the final of The Celebrity Traitors.

The singer, 52, and the comedian, 48, both reached the final three, along with actor Sebastian Croft, but Ranganathan then voted for Blunt to leave, believing him to be a traitor.

Blunt was shocked by the move and then voted for the Crawley comedian to be banished himself.

Ultimately, Blunt was banished, with Ranganathan, who used to be a teacher at Hazelwick school, and Croft winning the show. All three men were faithfuls.

Comedian Romesh Ranganathan and actor Sebastian Croft, with host Claudia Winkleman and James Blunt, King Kenny, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Maya Jama, after they won the 2026 series of BBC1's The Celebrity Traitors as faithfuls | Picture: Paul Chappells/ Studio Lambert/BBC

placeholder image — Comedian Romesh Ranganathan and actor Sebastian Croft, with host Claudia Winkleman and James Blunt, King Kenny, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Maya Jama, after they won the 2026 series of BBC1's The Celebrity Traitors as faithfuls | Picture: Paul Chappells/ Studio Lambert/BBC

Speaking on BBC Radio 2’s The Sara Cox Breakfast Show, Blunt said he felt “betrayed” when the comedian voted for him.

He said: “I think what I really knew is, I had proven through the time we had been there that I was a faithful. Everyone knew it.

“Everyone at the roundtable said he’s obviously a faithful, so when Romesh pulled his card out, I was like, hang on.

“I think Romesh was being a little underhand(ed). I had to chuck in a final red because he’s done something very treacherous there, hasn’t he?”

Blunt insisted there is no bad blood between the pair, adding: “It was the perfect finish, I really enjoyed it.

“Romesh and I are really close actually, I promise we’re really good friends.”

Speaking on LBC’s Nick Ferrari At Breakfast, Blunt said filming lasted for “22, 23 days” from the first day to the final.

Blunt said he previously had no interest in doing reality shows and so his manager had not informed him of the offer to be involved in the programme.

He said: “My manager never even told me I was being asked to do it. He pushed back on it.

“My wife walked in one morning and said, I’ve signed you up to Traitors. I think she thought, time with me out of the house. Send me out to Inverness to be locked away.”

Blunt said the other celebrities are “lovely people” and he particularly bonded with content creator King Kenny.

The final attracted its highest average overnight audience yet, with 11.2 million viewers tuning in.

The episode also recorded a peak audience of 11.6 million on BBC One, which is the highest of the series, alongside a 62.9% audience share, according to the BBC.

It became the most-watched episode of the celebrity spin-off to date, drawing a higher average audience than last year’s final -ich attracted 11.1 million viewers overnight.