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What's the Beef Between Danielle and Britney on The Traitors Season 3?
The two former Big Brothers players have lingering bad blood between them. What happened?
This story contains spoilers for the Season 3 premiere of The Traitors.
We love it when The Traitors gets messy, and it certainly gets fraught right off the bat in the Season 3 premiere of Peacock's Emmy-winning reality competition series.
At the entrance of the Scottish castle that serves as home base for host Alan Cumming to oversee the machinations of the game's Faithful and Traitor players, the 21 contestants for this season had barely gotten out of their chauffeured cars when former Big Brother players Danielle Reyes and Britney Haynes set eyes on one another. The tension was instantaneous, and Danielle even started crying upon setting her sights on Britney.
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For a show that loves to poke their reality show "bears" with Machiavellian twists and brutal challenges, The Traitors producers really outdid themselves by orchestrating a Danielle and Britney surprise reunion for the camera.
Why were there instant tears between the two of them? Let NBC Insider explain...
Danielle Reyes and Britney Haynes' Big Brother drama explained
For context, Big Brother veteran Danielle Reyes is often referenced by fellow players and media critics as being one of the best to ever play that reality competition series despite having never landed a season champion title after three tries. Meanwhile, Britney Haynes also competed in three different Big Brother seasons in which she came in second, sixth, and seventh place, respectively.
The 2023 holiday season, Big Brother: Reindeer Games, pitted Britney against Danielle for the first time. This was Danielle's first time back to the franchise in 17 years, so her reputation as an amazing player preceded her. However, it's fair to say she was a bit rusty when it came to reading her peers. In particular, she formed an alliance with Britney that dissolved when it became apparent neither could trust the other.
Britney sent Danielle into a special Santa's Showdown challenge that ended Danielle's time on the season with just a $5,000 prize. Danielle was clearly unhappy about not winning the season, her lowball prize money, and about Britney's betrayal.
In a post-season interview, Britney confirmed that she never fully trusted she and Danielle would go to the finale together.
"Maybe I was her number one," she said, per Entertainment Weekly. "That very well may be true, but it didn't feel like it to me there. The feeling that I had there was that her and Xavier were each other's number ones. It just seemed like they were super tight, that they were super close."
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However, she added that putting Danielle in a position to lose and be sent home wasn't easy.
"I have watched her seasons. I know the type of player she is," she said of Danielle. "If her and Xavier are talking about getting rid of me, no hesitation. She will get rid of me. No questions asked. So I knew that about her, but it still was so hard for me to do because of how much I really love her as a fan of the show and how much she had done for Big Brother as a program."
Which brings us back to that awkward, emotional reunion in front of Ardross Castle, where both were in tears, finally addressing that elimination for the first time. Britney apologized and Danielle accepted, but with the to-camera confessional caveat of "I can forgive you but I will not forget."
Beware, Britney!
Look for new episodes of The Traitors Season 3 streaming Thursdays on Peacock. All episodes of Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream right now too.
