The Celebrity Traitors ended with a dramatic test of trust, but the final has continued to generate headlines after the cameras stopped rolling. James Blunt has now explained why Romesh Ranganathan’s decision to vote against him felt like a betrayal. The singer also offered an important clarification: despite the tense moment in the BBC competition, he and the comedian remain friends.
James Blunt recalls the final vote
Blunt made it into the final three alongside Ranganathan and actor Sebastian Croft. All three were Faithfuls, but the players did not have the reassurance of knowing who was telling the truth. Ranganathan voted to banish Blunt, suspecting that he might secretly be a Traitor. Blunt then voted against Ranganathan, and a dramatic concluding sequence left the singer eliminated as the other two contestants secured victory.
Discussing that decision on BBC Radio 2’s Sara Cox Breakfast Show, Blunt said he felt his conduct during the series had already demonstrated that he was loyal. He believed his fellow contestants had enough information to trust him. When Ranganathan produced his vote, Blunt interpreted it as an unexpectedly suspicious move from someone he had considered an ally.
The key detail is that this was Blunt’s account of how the moment felt, not evidence that Ranganathan had set out to hurt him personally. In a game built around deception, even genuine allies may reach very different conclusions when the group is under pressure.
Are James Blunt and Romesh Ranganathan still friends?
Blunt’s answer to that question was clear. He said there was no bad blood between them and described Ranganathan as a close friend. He also spoke positively about the finale as a piece of television, despite being on the losing end of the last-minute decision.
That matters because the word betrayal can easily be mistaken for confirmation of an off-screen feud. In this instance, Blunt was talking about the logic and emotion of the game. His comments distinguish his frustration with the vote from his real relationship with the person who cast it.
The distinction also helps explain why the story has continued to resonate. A viewer can understand why Blunt was disappointed without concluding that the contestants are no longer on speaking terms. The final exposed the difficulty of maintaining trust when the stakes are high and a mistake can immediately end someone’s chance of winning.
How the Celebrity Traitors finale ended
The closing stages brought Ranganathan, Croft and Blunt together after other contestants, including the remaining Traitor, had been removed. The final decision was therefore especially painful: the people still arguing over loyalty were all Faithfuls.
Ranganathan and Croft ultimately won after Blunt’s banishment. For Blunt, being eliminated so close to the finish made the outcome particularly hard to accept in the moment. From the winners’ perspective, however, uncertainty remained until they had made their decision.
The episode showed how the programme can turn shared success into one final disagreement. Contestants spend much of the series trying to expose Traitors, but even an apparently strong relationship may not survive the last round of suspicion inside the game. The final’s result is settled; the players’ differing perceptions of the decision are what keep it in the news.
What Blunt has said about the experience
In interviews after the finale, Blunt has also reflected on the unusual demands of participating in a reality competition. Speaking to LBC, he discussed the length of filming and how being involved in the show differed from the type of television work he had previously imagined doing.
Those reflections add context to his response to Ranganathan. The Celebrity Traitors is not simply about guessing correctly. Players form relationships over an extended production while being encouraged to question whether those connections are genuine. By the time they reach the final, the emotional investment can be as significant as the tactical choices.
Blunt’s comments therefore offer a look at the aftermath of a famous final without requiring an exaggerated narrative about a feud. His reaction is newsworthy because he was one of the people involved, and because he has now described the decisive vote in his own words.
What has been confirmed?
The outcome remains that Ranganathan and Croft won The Celebrity Traitors after Blunt was voted out. Blunt has publicly said he felt betrayed by Ranganathan’s decision, but he has also said they are close friends. Those two statements are not contradictory: one concerns a decision during a television competition, and the other concerns their lives outside it.
As fans revisit the finale, the singer’s comments are a reminder that the show’s most dramatic exchanges can be real in the moment without creating a permanent personal rift.