The Circle contestant Yolanda on that Tally twist and more
So far the series has been full of twists the contestants have not anticipated.
The latest contestant blocked from The Circle says she decided to masquerade as her husband during the series to help give him a confidence boost.
Dating agency founder Yolanda, 30, from London, married landscaper Chris the day before entering the Channel 4 reality TV series as a contestant.
In the show, contestants living in a block of flats communicate online without ever meeting face-to-face, meaning they can adopt fake identities and “catfish” one another.
On entering the series pretending to be her husband, she told the PA news agency: “I wanted to go in as Chris because I wanted to re-tell his story to the world as I see it.
“Because he doesn’t believe in himself and he doesn’t see himself as amazing as he is, so I wanted to show him how great he is so that he stops doubting and starts believing in himself and starts having a spring in his footsteps”.
Yolanda was the first person to be blocked from the series, but an unexpected twist saw her stay in the competition and clone the identity of another player named Tally, leaving her to try to convince the other players which person was the original Tally.
She said: “That was honestly the biggest head spin I think I’ve ever experienced in my life. I’m such a planner and I have every single thing planned down to a tee… everything is very structured in my life so that completely threw me off.
“I was practically a landscaper. I learnt the trade of landscaping for the entire time I was planning to go on that show. There is nothing anyone could have told me about landscaping that I didn’t know. I even went on the job with Chris and was picking up heavy stuff moaning the whole way through, getting all dirty just to really have that landscaper feeling.
“And I learnt the whole Welsh rugby team, off by heart, (I) memorised them down to a tee. I was a Welsh landscaper rugby fanatic going in there and then next thing you know I’m a 23-year-old GP receptionist from Brighton!”.
Yolanda and Chris got married just 24 hours before she entered the series, and since leaving the series she has launched a match-making business called Beautifully Matched.
Also blocked from the series so far is father-daughter pair Jamie and Millie, from Hampshire, who took part as a pair but pretended to be Penny, a 49-year-old letting agent from London.
Strength and conditioning coach James, 47, who viewers may recognise as Hunter from hit 90s TV show Gladiators, is also a contestant in the series. He is catfishing the other contestants by pretending to be as NHS nurse named Gemma.
The Circle continues daily (except Saturday), 10pm on Channel 4.
