The Traitors: Maia shares big change she'd make with sister Armani if she entered show again

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Series 3 of The Traitors.

The Traitors is known for high-stakes and emotional confrontations, but murdered Faithful, Maia Gouveia, is seeing the funny side now that she’s out of the smash hit BBC gameshow, joking about “awkward” family dinners with sister and fellow contestant, Armani, and setting a screenshot of her tearful face as Armani is banished as her social media profile picture.

“It's so funny,” Maia smiles, “because literally, when you watch the video, you can see every single emotion come to my face. Because I first felt shocked. It was like, ‘oh my god, wow, I was right,’ and then it was, ‘oh my god, my sister’s gone, I'm going to be on my own now, I’m so lonely. Where is my sister?’”

“And then the last one was like, ‘but, yay, we actually got someone. I'm actually gonna get some money, they were gonna think I'm a Faithful, it might make me win,’” she laughs. “I think the main emotion was guilt. I felt so guilty, because I've never, ever gone against my sister before, like, ever - even growing up, it was weird for me to even be like, ‘yeah, it’s her and not me’, that was the weirdest experience of my life.”

Such a rush of emotions were criticised by fellow Faithful Tyler at the Round Table, who was heard saying “obviously, I feel sorry for her, it’s your sister, but come on” – a remark which has seen him come under fire by fans of the show online:

But Maia has revealed there was moment between the two of them which wasn’t in the episode.

“I didn't hear that when we was around the table,” she admits. “He actually did give me a hug, but obviously you don't see that, so I didn't really feel any type of way. I was more just like, ‘we all cry, he cried episode one, we all cry.’ I am a crybaby, and I did feel like I couldn't stop crying.

“Even as a viewer, when I'm watching the first season, I'm the person that's always going, ‘well, why are they crying for? Why are they always crying? This is crazy.’ But when I actually went there, I was like, ‘I get it, I actually understand. I'm never judging anybody ever again’.

“So his words did not affect me at all. I think he was more just gassed to get someone out – it was our first one, and I was right, but yeah, literally no stress.”

Looking back on her time on the show, Maia can remember exactly when she started to suspect the person closest to her.

“It was instantly,” the Faithful confirms. “Instantly. As soon as we got off that Round Table, and I asked her in the room, and I was like, ‘so are you a Traitor?’

“And then she went, ‘100 per cent, Maia, I'm definitely a Faithful’,” she says, raising her hands in front of her and adopting a different voice. “I was like, ‘why is she doing her work voice, don't be weird.’

“And that's when I realised, ‘yeah, it's you, it’s you, it's definitely you. This is your acting. You're acting right now. This is what's happening.”

But despite taking the bold step against her own sister and helping to seal her fate as a banished Traitor, Maia insists her sisterly bond with Armani is exactly the same now that they’re both off the show, and there are “definitely no qualms”.

“We knew what we signed up for, and we knew it was a game, and to be fair, nothing can really come in between that sister bond that you have,” she reveals. “It’s just fun. It's a bit of fun! I thought ‘maybe she’s gonna be a bit offended’, but I went to her and I was like, ‘Armani, please forgive me.’ And she was like, ‘Maia, oh my god, shut up, I don't care. Why do you feel the other way?’

“I overthink things in my brain where she's very much like, ‘oh my god, it was fun, like, what? It was such a great time.’”

And it’s a sister bond which Maia says she wouldn’t reveal to her fellow players if she went back into the castle for a second time.

“I would not say that Armani and I are sisters – 100 per cent not,” she explains. “I feel like as soon as we say we were sisters, people are always going to target us - it's just going to happen, because we're related, so they're going to think, ‘well, one of you must be one!’ So I definitely would not do that - if you’re siblings, don't do that.

“And second one, I would not have gotten off that boat. I would not have gotten off the boat, because that’s why I’m dead. I didn’t get no shield! I didn't get nothing!”

The lack of immunity from murder meant, in a brutal move by Traitors Linda and Minah, Maia was sent home immediately after Armani was banished.

While Linda continues to face some heat – not least from Jake - as a result of turning her head at the first Round Table when host Claudia Winkleman said the word “Traitors”, Minah has been breezing through the game undetected.

Indeed, in The Traitors’ sister show Uncloaked, Maia was seen sharing a shocked response with banished player Kasim when the pair of them learned of Minah’s role, adding that she “suspected her at the beginning”.

“I just never heard her speak, and I was like, ‘are you just being shy, or are you just, like, this is your tactic?’ But she blended so well into the background, I completely forgot she existed,” she explains to indy100. “That's where you know she's brilliant.”

Could that be her downfall? “That’s a good one,” replies Maia, “because things change so quickly, people's perceptions change of you so quickly, they might just start to clock her quietness, so maybe she should say a bit more.

“But to be fair, I think with Minah, she is saying enough - now that I've watched it. Because, in real life, I'm not around her 24/7 so I don't know what she's saying 24/7, but now, watching the episode, I'm like, ‘oh, you actually have been speaking up a little bit, but not putting yourself right in the centre, which I think is great gameplay.

“And she's such a team player that everyone's like, ‘oh, yeah, like, no, it can't be Minah, she's a team player’. I'm like, ‘She's killing the team!’”

The Traitors continues tonight at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.