Channel 10
The Grand Finale of The Traitors Australia 2026 certainly wasn’t short on drama, but thankfully, it seems that what happens inside The Traitors manor, stays inside The Traitors manor.
Throughout the season, contestants have been reuniting at live viewing parties to watch the twists play out on screen, with eventual winner Kirby Bentley among those who became a regular fixture.
So when it came time to sit down and watch the Grand Finale all together, as expected, both Kirby and Rhys Nicholson entered it with some nerves, knowing that an uncomfortable conversation was going to occur between the pair of traitors during the episode.
However, as is the beauty of The Traitors Australia, there’s no post-show bad blood this season.
Speaking to WHO after the airing of the Grand Finale, Rhys tell us: “It was so fun. It was chaos. We’ve been doing these viewing parties every week, and usually there’d be one or two of the contestants. Kirby’s been there every week.”
And while there may have been some nerves about revisiting the pair’s tense final moments together in the manor, Rhys says watching the footage back also changed the way they viewed what had happened.
Rhys unpacking ‘that’ moment with Kirby
Rhys had become convinced Kirby had turned against them and was hoping to push remaining contestants Keira Maguire and Krissy Marsh to vote for them. It led to a heated conversation out on the patio where things got tense, but watching it back beside Kirby offered a bit of a different perspective.
“I’m furious at her in that moment, and it’s because I think I was so sure that she had not just turned on me, but turned on me hard. And then, when I’m watching it and we’re sitting next to each other, it’s clear to me now that, ‘Oh, she kind of hadn’t turned on me as hard as I thought she had,'” Rhys explains.
“And actually, a couple days before, we had agreed that if we needed to turn on each other to protect ourselves, that’s fine. And then it’s just so funny to me to see me a couple days before being like use ‘me, use me’, and then a day later she uses me, and I’m f—ing furious about it.”
Rhys also laughs at one particular claim they made during the confrontation.
“Hilariously, I say in that argument, ‘I’m not pissed.’ I absolutely was. Of course I was.”
But beneath the anger lied a valid a concern that Kirby had risked too much of her game on one move.
“I think I was more annoyed that I felt like she had put too much of her game on getting me out and keeping Josh,” Rhys says.
“And that hadn’t gone her way because of the Kira chaos theory that we’re all floating around. To my eyes, it was like, ‘The game’s ruined now. You can’t win now. I can’t win. I’m definitely not going to win, but I think it’s going to be pretty hard for you to win now.’ And I think she realised that as well.”
The ‘silly’ moment that Rhys and Kirby both needed when watching the Grand Finale
Kirby admits to WHO that she was “anxious” going into the Grand Finale, particularly knowing that this moment with Rhys was going to air.
“I was not dreading watching it, but I was a little bit anxious coming into that,” Kirby tells us. “So when I’d written Rhys’ name down, the human side of me started to really tap in and you could see that. I was genuinely upset and… I don’t know the last time my mum saw me cry and I was genuinely just exhausted, hurting, upset and I felt like I’d cheated on my partner.”
For Rhys, watching that moment back together gave the pair a chance to acknowledge feelings that might otherwise have been brushed aside once filming wrapped.
“I’ve seen it on Drag Race as well,” Rhys explains. “A girl will vote another girl out, and in the moment they’re kind of like, ‘It’s fine, it’s fine,’ and it’s not fine because they don’t feel that way. Then they never quite address it out in the world.”
But thanks to cast’s viewing parties, there was no avoiding it this time.
“We’re playing a parlour game, and we’re both close to tears, sitting on a balcony while a frankly insane woman is trying to eavesdrop on us. But it I think it was good for us. I think having that conversation has meant that we have a better relationship outside of the show as well,” they explain.
“When that bit was happening, we were sitting next to each other and we started holding hands,” Rhys continues. “And again, it’s silly. We’re playing a game of Mafia.”
Rhys didn’t think they’d make it that far: ‘We had work booked’
For someone who made it within touching distance of the end, even beating faithfuls Josh Packham and Tully Smyth, Rhys admits even their own inner circle had not exactly planned for such a lengthy stint on the show.
“My husband and my agents – who I love, in that order – were so sure that I wasn’t going to be in there for very long that we had work booked in,” they laugh. “There were gigs and stuff, and then I just kind of stayed in and stayed in.”
“I must say I was a little bit proud of myself, like at the end sure I was probably being protected, and sure it’s because, you know, we weren’t the smartest faithfuls in the world.”
And despite being the first to poke fun at their game, Rhys came away feeling pretty chuffed about what audiences got to see of them.
“I might not have been the best game player, but I think I was utterly myself,” they say.
“My husband was saying to me, ‘It’s weird seeing you.’ He’s never seen my actual mannerisms on TV before because I’ve only ever been on studio shows and that kind of thing… Seeing me get angry at someone, he was like, ‘It’s really odd seeing you.’”
Why they think Kirby ‘deserved to win’ The Traitors
And maybe it’s just the magic of The Traitors, but Rhys also noted how the experience was never something they thought they’d get sentimental over.
“I hate at the end of reality shows when someone’s doing their last confessional and they’re like, ‘This really changed my life, and I’ve found my family now,’” they joke. “But it is annoying to me that it does feel that way.”
Still, when things inside the game became a little too intense, Rhys says they were always conscious of just how ridiculous the whole situation was.
“When you’re standing in the middle of a forest with Gretel Killeen wrapped in a green cape with flowers in her hair, watching a bunch of dancers with masks on, you have to point out that this is insane,” they say.
“There are so many players and they’re taking it so seriously – like they should. That’s their job on the show. But you have to occasionally be like, ‘Guys. No one was actually murdered. It’s okay.’”
And while Rhys could see the absurdity of it all, Kirby taking the game seriously paid off in a big way when she walked away with the $200,600 prize on Wednesday night – and they aren’t mad about it.
“To my eyes, she deserved to win. No offence the other two, but like also offence to the other two. They did not deserve to win in my eyes,” they laugh. “I think even if I’d still been a faithful, if I was watching the show, I’d be gunning for her to win, because I think she’s just played such an incredible game.”
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