Entertainment
The Circle’s Andy Smith reveals ‘blazing row’ with Manrika Khaira in unaired scenes
The Circle’s Andy Smith revealed he had a ‘blazing row’ with Manrika Khaira in unaired scenes, and was tempted to block her ahead of the final.
The pair had a rollercoaster time of it on the Channel 4 series, and went from ‘Circle siblings’ to enemies at one point, before managing to sort through their differences.
Things came to a head between them after Vithun’s blocking, where Andy questioned Manrika’s decision to send their pal home – before appearing to see her side of the story.
However, chatting to Metro.co.uk, the company director admitted things definitely weren’t as rosy as they seemed on our screens in their make-up chat.
‘I was all out for her at this point,’ he confessed. ‘There was a probably a three day period and the conversation where we patch it together was really heavy… If I’m honest, it was a row. It was a blazing row.
‘For me, I was aware of what was going on, because once you work out who is rating who, I could sense that she turned Femi and Pippa. I knew I was being burned at the stake, so to speak.
‘I suppose I was a bit dumbfounded by someone’s desire to win, and almost their kind of lack of perception of what was going on, because I just couldn’t see her game plan as a long term one, because she was burning through friendships.’
Spilling the tea on what else went down in their unaired conversation, Manrika said she came clean to Andy that she had been conspiring against him, and had turned Femi and Pippa against him in a previous moment.
‘I openly admitted it and I was so honest with him, but they cut that out completely,’ she told us. ‘So in the chat that me and Andy had when we made up, I told him about Triple Threat.
‘I told him about what what I did with Femi and Pippa. I told him that I got too much into the game, that I overthought things, that this is the reason why, but they didn’t show any of it. I literally admitted everything to him so we’re absolutely fine.
‘That’s why he said, “I’m so grateful for you being honest”. But they cut it all out, so I look like a c***. I just basically look like I’d lied to Andy.’
Andy insisted that he was always coming from a ‘place of love’ in terms of their friendship and was rooting for Manrika, but found it hard to keep up when she was not-so-secretly gunning for him.
And when he was given the ultimate power of secret super influencer in the penultimate ratings, he did question booting her out before eventually deciding to axe ‘Alice’ – aka Shabaz.
‘The only other person I considered… The honest answer is Manrika,’ he continued. ‘But for me, regardless of what had happened – and although I disagreed with her game plan in the strongest sense – she deserved to be there.
‘She played the game, and you could feel in every pore of her body, it became less about wanting it and it almost felt like she needed it. I was like, “Who am I to take that opportunity away?”
‘If you’d have asked me yesterday morning, I think I was partially regretting not blocking Manrika, is the truth. That’s probably as honest as I can be.
‘But getting to watch the final and being back in the emotional headspace I was during the show, I’m really pleased I didn’t.’
The Circle is available to watch on All4 now, with all episodes on catch up.
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