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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Kyle O'Sullivan

Where BGT's Marc Spelmann is now - secret identity, scathing rant and witch rumours

It would be rather audacious if Marc Spelmann isn't came back to Britain's Got Talent for a third time.

The talented magician has already auditioned under two different guises - and some viewers are speculating he has returned once again in a hideous new form.

At the age of just seven-years-old, Marc discovered his fascination for illusion and the impossible and developed the unique natural ability to simply reverse-engineer everything he witnessed.

Marc was no overnight success and often performed for free to gain experience before everything changed in 2015 when he became a father.

After five years of gruelling IVF, his wife Tessa battled an aggressive form of breast cancer while she was pregnant and was forced to undergo chemotherapy while their daughter, Isabella, was in the womb.

When she was seven months pregnant, doctors decided she needed a stronger form of the treatment, and would therefore need to perform a caesarean so that both she and Isabella would have a chance to live.

Marc Spelmann competed on BGT in 2018 (Tom Dymond/Thames/Syco/REX/Shutterstock)

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Thankfully, Isabella is now perfectly healthy and has become a key component of her dad's act.

Having spent two years away from the stage to look after his wife and daughter, Marc decided to audition for BGT in 2018 and told his emotional story through his act.

"Oh god it's emotional," wailed Ant as tears streamed down his face as he watched from the sidelines with co-host Dec Donnelly, who was also crying.

After getting a standing ovation from the audience, Marc also received a hug from teary Ant, who said: "You had me in tears man."

His audition was the most watched performance of the whole series, amassing over 400 million views across the world, and he received Ant and Dec's golden buzzer.

Marc was tantalisingly close to reaching the final but was booted out in the semis, then was embroiled in controversy as he got caught slamming the show before he auditioned.

In a series of blistering tweets, he declared the show "made a mockery of entertainment" in a scathing Twitter rant from 2013 and urged his followers to switch off.

Marc with his daughter, who features in his act (Internet Unknown)

He was embroiled in controversy as he got caught slamming the show in a series of blistering tweets, sent before his first audition.

In unearthed tweets from 2013 - the year shadow theatre act Attraction won - the magician blasted BGT, calling it a "mockery of entertainment" and urging his followers to switch off.

One tweet referred to the musician who left her seat to egg show boss Simon Cowell during the live final of the series.

It stated: "#bgt #eggattack musician chucking eggs at Simon. Wonder if it was truly random or a publicity stunt to detract from poor final..??"

He also fumed: "This is the last I'll say I promise. #bgt is a mockery of entertainment. It's a joke. Simon is laughing at the deluded public. Do not vote!"

Spelmann told Mirror Online: "I've changed rather a lot in the last six years and the off-hand tweets I made about Britain's Got Talent many years ago in no way reflect my thoughts and feelings on the show now."

That was the last viewers had thought they'd seen of him on BGT, but then came a mysterious performer named X in 2019.

No one knew who X was (Dymond/Thames/Syco/REX)

X refused to speak to the judges, disguised his voice and kept his true identity under wraps during the auditions and semi-final.

During the final, X was finally exposed as Marc in the most dramatic of fashion.

The reveal was made using a powerful montage of his previous performances which ended with Ant repeating: "Imagine at the end he take it off and it's someone we know?"

The trick was a year in the planning as Marc's daughter was seen sleeping in her cot next to a book with the word 'hope' written on it - the same word that Simon picked during the semi-final and that he got the entire audience to choose in the final.

The talented illusionist finally took off the creepy white mask to show who was hiding beneath - and the judges' jaws were left on the desk when they saw who it was.

Marc said: "It was always about hope and never giving up. It’s been an honour sharing X with you. I am X."

Ant and Dec were jumping up and down with excitement - and even Simon Cowell didn't know the secret, admitting he would never have guessed it "in a million years".

Marc was revealed to be X (Dymond/Thames/Syco/REX)
Marc managed to keep it a secret (Dymond/Thames/Syco/REX)

Speaking afterwards, Marc explained that he had a close friend following him around everywhere talking for him.

"My wife obviously knew and Isabella knew because I'd been rehearsing. She was quite used to me being in a mask. She thinks everyone in a white mask is her dad," he explained on Lorraine.

On why he kept his act anonymous, he said: “It was difficult but at the same time so much fun. We all want to be superheroes, X was a superhero to me.

He added: “X is a concept, I've always loved the notion of an anonymous character that evokes magic from people.

“The most powerful magic you can see is if I can make you do something incredible, that's going to resonate with you so much more.”

Then in 2020, Marc competed in America's Got Talent: The Champions' second series and reached the semi-finals, then he was back for that year's Britain's Got Talent Christmas Spectacular.

In a shock twist, X removed his mask and revealed himself to be Ant - then Marc gifted the presenter with the X mask and gloves.

Could Marc be the witch? (ITV)

Now BGT viewers are convinced that a terrifying witch who auditioned this weekend is actually Marc in a new disguise.

The "scary" contestant left fans on edge as they watched the character give Amanda Holden an apple - only to crush it up and reveal a handful of maggots and cockroaches, which prompted Alesha Dixon to run away.

The performance of the witch disguised behind a costume and facial prosthetics, concluded with the mysterious figure disappearing in sparks while on stage.

With the act using facial prosthetics, viewers at home have begun to speculate over their identity, thinking a star could be masquerading as the character.

"Possibly a new Marc Spelmann character?," theorised one viewer. Another asked: "Anyone else think the Witch is Marc Spelmann?" They said it could be his third attempt at BGT.

Responding to such speculation, one viewer wrote on social media: "This is what I said. I think it's a great shout. [...] It's just the kinda thing he would do. I thought it instantly."

Another said they are "convinced" its Spelmann, who was a semi-finalist in 2018 and runner-up in 2019. One fan asked: "I wonder if the Witch really is Marc Spellman in costume?"

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