{"id":830286,"date":"2026-07-29T02:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T02:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830286\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T02:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T02:08:18","slug":"gretel-killeen-the-traitors-australia-season-3-former-big-brother-host-used-to-tone-down-the-way-she-spoke-and-dressed-now-shes-embracing-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830286\/","title":{"rendered":"Gretel Killeen The Traitors Australia season 3: Former Big Brother host used to tone down the way she spoke and dressed. Now, she\u2019s embracing joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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While filming reality game show The Traitors, Gretel Killeen began to question some of the choices she\u2019d made over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018Why have I been trying to be someone I\u2019m not all this time?\u2019\u201d says the original host of Australian Big Brother<\/a>. \u201cI toned down how I dress because I didn\u2019t want to be looked at. I toned down the things I say because I didn\u2019t want to draw attention to myself. When you\u2019re in the public eye, you can forget who you actually are. It made me realise that I don\u2019t play enough in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now 63, the veteran broadcaster, comedian and author is making up for lost time \u2013 and she\u2019s having a blast.<\/p>\n

When I first interviewed Killeen in 2009<\/a>, she styled herself in jeans and a brown jacket for the photo shoot. This time, she opts for a fabulous turquoise suit, a vivid orange blazer, snakeskin-patterned boots, a beret, several elaborate rings and a black toy cat, which she strokes in the manner of a Bond villain. She also brings a piece of her own artwork to use as a backdrop, having taken up painting several years ago.<\/p>\n

\"UnderUnder the glare of the public spotlight, Killeen began toning herself down. At 63, she\u2019s done trying be someone she\u2019s not.Sam Mooy<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to think fancy dress parties were embarrassing,\u201d she says. \u201cTalk about being a slow learner, but it\u2019s only now that I realise why people like them: they\u2019re being given permission to play and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

In The Traitors, Killeen encourages contestants to be as naughty as they wish. She certainly leads by example; in the first episode, she makes her grand entrance by stepping out of a coffin in a blood-soaked wedding gown.<\/p>\n

Based on a Dutch format, the hit series<\/a> has spawned 40 international adaptations<\/a>, including an earlier Australian iteration presented by Rodger Corser<\/a>. Filmed in a splendid New Zealand manor, this new season features 22 former reality show contestants and judges from programs including Australian Idol, Australian Survivor<\/a>, The Bachelor, The Block, MasterChef Australia, the Real Housewives franchise and Drag Race Down Under<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The premise is simple: Killeen secretly anoints a few members of the group as \u201ctraitors\u201d, instructing them to covertly murder as many \u201cfaithfuls\u201d as possible. Meanwhile, the faithfuls try to unmask the traitors during roundtable banishment ceremonies, where accusations fly thick and fast. If they rid themselves of every traitor by the final episode, they share in a prize pool worth up to $250,000. If they fail, the remaining traitors claim the lot.<\/p>\n

\"Killeen,Killeen, dressed as a widowed bride, as host of The Traitors Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about human behaviour, which I\u2019ve always been fascinated by,\u201d Killeen says. \u201cTo succeed, you have to be liked and not stand out so you\u2019re not perceived as a threat<\/a>. It\u2019s a bit like how women have had to be in the world. I\u2019ve been in many meetings where women are the smartest people in the room, but they pitch their ideas as though they\u2019re an afterthought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor’s pick\"Patrick<\/a><\/p>\n

When Killeen arrives for our interview at Channel Ten\u2019s Pyrmont headquarters in inner Sydney, she greets me warmly before frowning at the seating arrangement. \u201cI like to see people\u2019s faces when I\u2019m talking to them,\u201d she explains as we drag the sofas closer together. \u201cIt\u2019s much nicer this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Killeen is terrific company: intelligent, funny and entertainingly discursive. While she deems this last trait a weakness, I find it refreshing. \u201cJust wait until you have to edit the transcript,\u201d she counters. \u201cThen you\u2019ll be going, \u2018Oh my god, this needs a flow chart.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When I spoke to her 17 years ago, she was promoting her \u201cgleefully exaggerated memoir\u201d, The Night My Bum Dropped. The book satirised<\/a> the \u201cyou can have it all\u201d ethos that, as Killeen put it, made many women feel they ought to \u201crun a global empire, raise a family, help a crippled dog give birth and do the ironing while having multiple orgasms\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the real me<\/a>,\u201d she admits now. \u201cAnd it was the real me having a kind of breakdown. I remember thinking, \u2018People are reading this and not realising [how accurate it is]\u2019. But that\u2019s life, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA protest by evicted housemate Merlin Luck, in the fourth season of Big Brother, became one of the most talked-about TV moments of 2004.<\/p>\n

Although Killeen has been on our screens since the late 1980s, Big Brother made her a household name in 2001. As Australia\u2019s first major reality TV host<\/a>, she is also regarded as one of the genre\u2019s finest. This is no surprise: she earned the marks to study law but quit to pursue live comedy and has since worked in radio, TV and musical theatre; acted and directed; performed for the troops; and authored more than 30 books.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Iconic<\/a><\/p>\n

As one critic observed, she lent a \u201cmuted wit, maturity and a wry smile to Big Brother, without ever being condescending\u201d. Yet others were incensed by the very existence of the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig Brother elevated average Australians to a position of importance, which may have been threatening to those who liked the hierarchy of the status quo,\u201d Killeen says. \u201cAnd because we had such enormous numbers of people watching, some decided that was a sign the show wasn\u2019t very smart. I think they\u2019re ill-informed judgments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since stepping down from the series in 2007, Killeen has competed in other reality series including The Masked Singer, Celebrity Come Dine With Me, Go Back to Where You Came From and The Amazing Race: Celebrity Edition. But The Traitors is her first major reality hosting role since Big Brother. One thing that attracted her to the project was the chance to be intimately involved in its production. She decided to play the host as a character of her own creation: a vampish widow with a string of ex-husbands who perished in mysterious circumstances. She even created a scrapbook detailing her character\u2019s backstory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Ten and the production company said to me, \u2018Yeah, we can do it this way\u2019, it was so exciting to me,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s very uncommon in television now because everything is so scripted and we were going the complete other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Traitors, Killeen says, illustrates many interesting aspects of human psychology. This includes our innate desire to form tribes and our susceptibility to confirmation bias<\/a>, which makes us prioritise information that reinforces existing beliefs while dismissing contradictory evidence.<\/p>\n

In The Traitors, contestants are required to test the strength of their arguments against those of their fellow players. In the real world, however, many of us self-sort into ideological silos<\/a>, where our opinions are constantly reinforced<\/a> by social media algorithms. This makes it deceptively easy to assume our views are more widely shared<\/a> than they actually are.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut The Traitors also shows that we all have this desire to play<\/a>,\u201d Killeen says, noting that the physical challenges offered participants a welcome reprieve from their scheming and second-guessing. \u201cIt\u2019s a release for people to be running around and getting out of their own heads, because they\u2019re connecting with the real world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a society where loneliness is at epidemic proportions<\/a> and as a grandma, I think, \u2018What happened to playfulness in our lives? Where did it go? It\u2019s so fun and joyful and healthy<\/a>, so how did we become so focused on the most miserable elements of our existence?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KilleenKilleen with one of The Traitors\u2019 contestants, comedian Rhys Nicholson, who is a judge on Drag Race Down Under. <\/p>\n

When I ask her to answer her own questions, she doesn\u2019t hesitate. \u201cMoney and accessories are measurable,\u201d she says, \u201cbut the joy or kindness you give other people are not, so we dismiss them from the equation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Killeen, who has an adult son and daughter with her ex-husband, tries to keep her private life out of the spotlight. \u201cYour life is not an entity that has a picket fence around it,\u201d she says. \u201cEven though I might want to comment on my life, there are other people whose lives will be impacted by those comments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KiIleenKiIleen was part of a chat show hosted by Mike Walsh (centre front) that aired on the ABC in 1987.ABC<\/p>\n

But she needs little prompting to talk about her passions, including painting. (She accepts commissions to create original artworks<\/a> through her website.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in an environment where academia was more important than artistic pursuits,\u201d she says, while praising her father for prioritising his four daughters\u2019 education at a time when many dads did not. \u201cTo know that I can hold my own in an academic arena gives me a strength \u2026 although I was ignoring the fact that the largest percentage of my character is artistic. With writing, I have to keep peeling the onion and getting back to what my voice is. With painting, I\u2019m just a conduit and I try not to let my brain interfere with the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AsAs Australia\u2019s first major reality TV host, Killeen is also regarded as one of the genre\u2019s finest.Network Ten<\/p>\n

Indeed, simple household tasks can be a source of inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a world where things that are vital to accessing creativity are done by other people,\u201d Killeen says. \u201cMowing the lawn, cooking your own meal, washing up: they\u2019re all creative processes that can be quite meditative<\/a>. We give them to other people because we think it makes life easier \u2013 but it doesn\u2019t make life richer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are moments of contemplation, which is where ideas come from<\/a>. [People assume] that ideas come from inside your mind, but for me, they fly in through the windows and doors. They come from the outside if you just give them space<\/a> to let them in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Traitors premieres at 7.30pm on Tuesday, August 4, on Ten.<\/p>\n

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