Entertainment
The Circle star Manrika Khaira reveals real Felix reached out to apologise over Natalya’s catfishing: ‘He’s a lovely guy’
The Circle star Manrika Khaira revealed that the real Felix got in touch on social media, and apologised for Natalya Platonova’s antics.
Viewers of the Channel 4 series were glued to their screens as Natalya joined series three pretending to be paratrooper Felix, and catfished her way into a relationship with Manrika.
The pair quickly became ‘Circle boyfriend and girlfriend’, despite never having laid eyes on each other – which led to an explosive first meeting.
Chatting to Metro.co.uk following an intense final – where her ‘boyfriend’ ended up taking home the crown – the runner-up spilled the beans on their conversations.
‘Me and the real Felix actually follow each other on Instagram,’ she told us. ‘I’ve never said anything about it so people are obviously checking my followers.
‘He basically sent me a voice note apologising for Natalya’s behaviour. He said that I was his favourite person on the show.’
Already pouring cold water on any romance rumours, she said: ‘He’s got a girlfriend anyway, which is fine…
‘Honestly I think I’m put off anybody called Felix for life.
‘We follow each other on Instagram, he’s a lovely guy. We chat now and again or reply to each others’ stories, but yeah, that’s it.’
There’s no doubting that Manrika had the biggest rollercoaster time of it in the competition – which led to some nasty, unwarranted abuse from viewers.
When asked what the worst moment to watch back on TV was, the star explained that her budding ‘romance’ with her fake ‘action man’ was definitely not ideal viewing.
‘My date with Felix is up there with one of the worst things I had to watch,’ she continued. ‘No, actually, the first flirtatious conversation I had on that cowboy night… I was screaming, I was physically gagging. Honestly, I was gagging.
‘Everything else is quite enjoyable to watch back, it’s just that. It’s just cringe, isn’t it? I will flirt with a brick wall, this is the problem.
‘Me doing that is just a bit of banter, everyone just thought I’d fallen in love with this army woman / guy. But that’s just me and this is why I end up getting myself into this.’
Hopefully she doesn’t get herself into anymore awkward catfish relationships now that the show is over…
The Circle is available to watch on All4 now, with all episodes on catch up.
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