Clare Balding keeps note of the sports stars she dislikes on her secret 'The W****** Eleven' list
Clare Balding has a secret list called “The W****** Eleven”, which features 11 sports stars she dislikes.
Clare Balding keeps a note of the sports stars she dislikes.
The esteemed 54-year-old broadcaster - who has interviewed the likes of Olympians, Paralympians, tennis players and jockeys throughout her illustrious career - has a secret list called “The W****** Eleven”, and those on it have behaved badly.
Clare - who did not reveal who is on the list - told attendees at a literary festival where she promoted her new novel, Pastures New: "I keep a list and the list’s name is The W****** Eleven.
“Some people go to the bench as subs if they suddenly are nicer than I thought they were going to be, then some new ones appear.
“Sometimes people are rude because they are very nervous or because they are upset at something that has just happened.
“The difficult ones are the ones who know they should talk and they just don’t.”
Elsewhere, Clare and 18 other celebrities - including comedian Alan Carr, 49, and 73-year-old actress Celia Imrie - will be taking part in BBC's Celebrity Traitors.
The show - which launches on October 8 at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer - will see the stars play the ultimate game of betrayal and deceit inside Ardross Castle, Scottish Highlands.
The nine-part programme - hosted by 53-year-old star Claudia Winkleman - follows the same format as the award-winning civilian series, called The Traitors, where a few members of a group are chosen as Traitors and the rest become Faithful.
It is the job of the Faithful to try to work out who the Traitors are without being "murdered" by their opponents.
After the Strictly Come Dancing launch show aired on September 20, the BBC dropped a trailer for the show - where the celebrities will compete for a cash prize of up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice - showing the cast sat around the iconic round table, and Claudia walking around it whilst delivering a warning.
She said: "Your glamorous lives count for nothing.
"Most of you will be murdered.”
Clare has previously admitted she found Celebrity Traitors "brutal" because it forced her current friendships, including with 31-year-old former Olympic diver Tom Daley - who is also taking part in the show - to fly "out of the window".
In May, she said at the Goodwoof event, where she promoted her new novel Pastures New: "It is so intense, and you get completely obsessed with the game.
"Obviously, I knew quite a lot of them before I went in, but the friendships you had before go out the window!
“That, for me, is very challenging because I like to be friends with everybody!"
But the star is glad she did the BBC show.
She added: "It’s brutal, but I think I’m glad I did it. It will make good television, and there are some really strong moments.”
