The Traitors: Sussex’s Livi Deane takes centre stage in roundtable drama after sharing inspirational cancer story

Horsham beautician and model Livi Deane took centre stage during another dramatic episode of The Traitors – and she has been earmarked as a potential murder victim.

Hit BBC reality competition The Traitors is a psychological adventure competition where contestants are moved into a castle in the Scottish Highlands in order to complete a series of challenges and missions together as a team.

The popular game show is back for a third instalment with some fresh changes this year – and it’s got potential to be the most brutal series yet. Viewers, including me, were particularly shocked when Jack Marriner-Brown was cruelly evicted from the game before he even got to the castle.

After limited screen-time in the first two episodes, Horsham’s Livi Deane, 26, was properly introduced to viewers this week when she explained her inspirational cancer story.

Livi defied the odds after being diagnosed with a rare eye cancer – retinoblastoma – when she was just 12-years-old.

After two-and-a-half-years of gruelling chemotherapy, Livi went into remission but medics had to remove her eye, fitting her with a prosthetic.

The author and model explained: “When I had my eye removed, I had to adjust to a whole way of living. At the age of 14 all my friends were experiencing being a teenager and growing into adulthood, and I was starting chemotherapy.

"I've always just got on with it, I've never dwelt on it, and I've adjusted to my new life. I think that comes with everything now, I never give up, I always push and I want to succeed.”

Livi is now very much at the forefront of the drama in the show. In the closing stages of the latest episode, she was left storming out of the castle after a shock banishment left her devastated.

Her close friend Tyler Smith was wrongly identified by the majority of his fellow faithfuls as a traitor despite protests from Livi.

During the typically dramatic roundtable, Livi said she would be ‘broken’ if Tyler was among the traitors – cue that infamous and brilliant eye-roll from Dan Bird.

Harry Clarke’s crushing betrayal of Mollie Pearce in series two shows that it is not wise to let close bonds affect your mindset. But, in this case, Livi was correct and her ‘bestie’ Tyler was in fact someone she could trust.

After Tyler was voted off, he revealed he was a faithful all along. Livi sobbed when the verdict was delivered and, overcome by emotion, stormed out of the room. She said: “No one is listening to me. I’ve got to get out of here for a second.”

The majority of the faithfuls turned on Tyler after Freddie Fraser – who has so far survived fierce, false allegations of being a traitor – raised the suggestion that Tyler could be leading a ‘clique’, and trying to control a narrative to suit himself.

Livi remains adamant that Freddie, 20, is a traitor and the pair came to blows dramatically in episode five.

Freddie had his own emotional moment in episode four when the suspicion from those around him got a bit too much. As he sobbed, he was consoled by mother-figure Francesca Rowan-Plowden – an interior designer from East Sussex.

As viewers know, Freddie is also innocent, with the real traitors Minah Shannon and Linda Rands deviously and quietly watching the chaos unfold around them.

Minah is so far doing a brilliant job at avoiding suspicion but Linda’s name has been mentioned a few times – including by Fozia Fazil.

Fozia has subsequently been named among three murder targets just one episode after returning to the show, having left the train on day one.

As episode five ended on a cliffhanger, viewers discovered that Livi is unfortunately one of the potential victims – alongside Anna Duke who dramatically refused the offer of becoming a traitor earlier in the show.

To find out if Livi lives to fight another day, tune into The Traitors at 9pm on BBC One tonight (Friday, January 10). To catch up on any episodes you’ve missed, visit www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0db9b2t/the-traitors.