Maya Jama has defended herself after a Celebrity Traitors viewer accused her of treating fellow Traitor James Acaster badly during the programme’s latest murder challenge.
The Love Island presenter responded in a post on X, insisting that she had not been a “cow” towards the comedian and suggesting that viewers were applying different standards to her behaviour.
Jama later deleted the response.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Celebrity Traitors.
Viewer criticises Maya’s performance
The disagreement followed a challenge in which Maya, James and their fellow Traitor King Kenny were ordered to “murder” a Faithful in plain sight.
To complete the task, they needed to make their chosen contestant yawn before one of the Traitors delivered a particular line.
The group used exaggerated yawning and deliberately tedious conversation in an attempt to trigger a response. Ross Kemp eventually yawned and was eliminated from the game.
One viewer subsequently criticised Maya’s contribution and accused her of leaving the difficult part of the task to James.
“Maya being a cow towards James,” the viewer wrote, arguing that James had completed the murder while Maya sat nearby performing “pathetic fake yawns”.
The viewer also suggested that James had been placed in a risky position between two observant Faithfuls while Maya had another Traitor beside her.
Maya denies behaving badly
Maya responded directly to the criticism in a since-deleted post.
“I wasn’t a cow at all,” she wrote, before saying it had been interesting to observe some of the conclusions being drawn about her behaviour.
She suggested that she would have been subjected to harsher criticism had the roles been reversed.
Maya also disputed the claim that James had completed the challenge alone, explaining that both of them had yawned but only one person was allowed to deliver the required line.
“He just said it first,” she added, ending the post with the hashtag “#noticing”.
Other viewers came to her defence, arguing that the original criticism overlooked the fact that both Traitors had participated in the plan.
Tensions rise among the Traitors
Maya began the series as an original Traitor alongside Richard E. Grant, who was banished early in the competition.
James Acaster was recruited later, followed by Professor Hannah Fry and then content creator King Kenny.
The latest episodes have shown growing tension within the group as Maya has pushed her fellow Traitors to become more actively involved in deception and strategic decisions.
James has sometimes appeared uncomfortable with betraying contestants he likes, creating friction between the pair.
Elsewhere in the latest episode, former model Jerry Hall was banished after contestants wrongly concluded that she might be a Traitor. She revealed upon leaving that she had remained a Faithful throughout the competition.
The Celebrity Traitors continues on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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