They were betrayed and nearly robbed of £100,000 by someone they thought was a friend.
But the three victors in hit reality show The Traitors have no hard feelings for chief villain Wilfred Webster.
They have even invited Wilf and his three fellow traitors to meet up and to join their WhatsApp group.
Winner Hannah Byczkowski said: “We all see each other quite a lot which is really, really lovely.
“We’re all kind of a family now.”
Such generosity might surprise some viewers. In the BBC show, 22 contestants split into “faithfuls” and “traitors” played a game resembling wink-murder in a remote Scottish castle.
The faithfuls’ aim was to unmask traitors before being “murdered” in order to win a share of the prize money accumulating as the players completed challenges.
But if any traitors remained when the game ended, they would win the whole prize pot. After 12 episodes, viewers saw faithfuls Hannah and Aaron Evans unmask the last of four traitors – Londoner Wilf, 28.
The unmasking came in the nick of time. But the game was harder than it looked to viewers, explains faithful Meryl Williams, 26.
She said: “My friends are like: ‘How did you not know it was Wilf?’
“But I was just running on my gut instinct. I’m too trusting, that’s my problem. He was playing a game and he was playing an amazing game.
“I didn’t ever doubt him.”
The three faithfuls left at the end of the show are now sharing the prize.
And while she has forgiven fundraiser Wilf, Hannah says the show taught her a valuable life lesson as he was her best friend in the castle.
The fellow Londoner, a comedian, joked: “I’m never going to be able to have a relationship again.
“I was completely under Wilf’s spell the whole time. It was such a shock because we bonded so much it just didn’t occur to me ever.”
Aaron, 24, added: “I was shocked Wilf was a traitor but there was a part of me that had started to suspect it as well.”
The estate agent from Portsmouth, Hants, has vowed to spend his share of the cash on a house deposit for his mum.
Meryl, from Edinburgh, is using her prize money to pursue a career as a TV presenter after quitting as a call centre worker.
Hannah left her job as a care assessor to go on the show and is now doing comedy gigs and podcasting.
She said: “I’d never considered the money until episode 10 or 11 because I always felt I was about two minutes from being kicked off.
“I just wanted to stay because I was enjoying the process so much.”
The series, fronted by Claudia Winkleman, has been pulling in around 2.8 million viewers in its final week, with nearly 15 million streams on iPlayer.
The final figure for the explosive finale is expected to be even higher meaning more series are likely.
