The Traitors star ‘didn’t want to live anymore’ after being diagnosed with ‘suicide disease’-Sabrina Barr-Entertainment – Metro

The Traitors star Charlotte Chilton has revealed how an agonising health condition known as the ‘suicide disease’ resulted in her ‘missing out on a lot of things in life’.

Last week on the BBC series, the recruitment manager was banished at the roundtable after arousing suspicion for being a possible Traitor.

Following her confirmation that she was in fact a Faithful all along, Metro.co.uk had the chance to speak to the 32-year-old about her time on the show, and what inspired her to take part.

Charlotte recalled having a ‘terrible time’ while undergoing brain surgeries in her twenties after being diagnosed with a condition called trigeminal neuralgia.

The charity Trigeminal Neuralgia UK outlines that the condition is ‘sudden, severe, brief, stabbing pain occurring in attacks lasting at the most a few seconds usually only on one side of the face and provoked by light touch’, adding that it’s described as being ‘the worst pain known to man’.

Trigeminal neuralgia is also known as the ‘suicide disease’, with Charlotte sharing that when she was suffering from excruciating pain, she ‘didn’t want to live anymore’.

‘I was at my worst,’ she recalled about the difficult period of her life (Picture: BBC/Studio Lambert/Mark Mainz)

After sharing that her medical experiences did spur her on to take part in The Traitors, Charlotte explained: ‘You don’t know when you’re going to have your next pain and when you do have your pain, it can be managed sometimes with painkillers or it can be to a point you’re screaming, you want to stick a knife in your face because it’s unbearable.

‘It’s actually known as the “suicide disease” because it has such a high percentage of people who [die by] suicide because it’s just agony. It’s the worst pain condition you can have.’

The Traitors star emphasised that the condition is rare, and she had a ‘very bad case of it’.

As she spoke about having to ‘miss out on a lot of things in life, she became choked up at the memory, stating: ‘I didn’t want to live anymore. I was at my worst.’

Charlotte’s wife Laura Chilton urged a leading surgeon to take her on as a patient, which he did so after confirming for himself that she was in a ‘bad’ state.

‘So he fixed me and then I had a car accident and bashed my head so hard, it kind of messed up all the bits I’d had done so gradually, I was getting pains real bad again. So I got rushed in and they did it again,’ she recollected.

‘This time they shredded the nerve as well as padding it all out in the hope that this would really help and it did, but the downside is the recovery was a lot worse and short term memory loss.’

Gesturing on the right side of her face, she added: ‘My speech was not very good because I’ve got no feeling from here, down to half of my tongue. I can’t feel anything along this side.’

Charlotte’s recovery involved having to learn functions again including eating, talking, walking and working on her coordination.

To this day, Charlotte said that she ‘still gets pains’ after her trigeminal neuralgia diagnosis and constantly feels as though the right side of her face has been numbed by a dentist.

She also knows that she ‘will have to have it done again at some point in life’.

‘But what I do know is that I can’t let it rule me. I can’t live in fear. I’ve lived in fear for 10 years. This is my 30s. We got over Covid, I’m gonna seize the day and push myself and that’s what I’ve done,’ she vowed.

By coming on The Traitors, Charlotte wanted to show people that no matter what they’re going through, ‘you can’t let it rule what you want to do – you’ve got to go for it’.

That also showed in the missions, as the recruitment manager never held back from giving it her all, and rarely took notice of the shields as her priority was building up the cash pot.

While speaking to Charlotte, we were granted an insight into just how difficult it can be to star on The Traitors, as the ‘immersive’ experience made her feel as though she was in ‘constant turmoil’.

‘I really struggled with the anxiety in it. I was sick multiple times, because I just couldn’t handle saying things to people I really liked and not knowing who I could trust. It was more like a social experiment,’ she said.

So it’s no surprise that reuniting with her ‘proud’ wife Laura, as well as their adorable two dogs, was ‘emotional’ to say the least.

While going on The Traitors might have been stressful at times, Charlotte explained that there was also plenty of fun and laughs to be had among all of the contestants.

One element of the show that was exciting for her to do was her bath scene.

Each of the contestants were filmed carrying out various activities in their rooms, with the clips then shown when the Traitors were deciding to either murder or recruit.

While Diane Carson was shown lunging, and Andrew Jenkins could be seen lifting weights, Charlotte was filmed lathering herself with soap in a bathtub, a scenario that she was completely on board with.

The original idea had been for her to be filmed shuffling or playing with some cards, considering her experience as a poker player.

However, someone on the production team came up with the idea for a ‘tasteful’ bath scene, complete with luxurious candles to set the mood.

Charlotte played a brilliant game and threw herself into missions until she was banished at the roundtable (Picture: BBC/Studio Lambert/Llara Plaza)

‘I’m the kind of person, in this life, I went on the show, and said, “I’m going to say yes, I’m just gonna say yes to things. I’m just gonna go for it.” You know, [I’m in my] 30s, I spent my 20s with brain surgeries and having a terrible time. This is the time to just take some risks,’ Charlotte shared.

‘It’s not something I would normally do. I’m not on OnlyFans or anything like that. I just got in there and thought I’ll go for it. When it aired, and this is the moment Laura was next to me, we both went, “Oh my god.” It was really sultry.’

At the end of the day, Charlotte found the way that it was filmed ‘magical’, and the epitome of ‘female empowerment’.

‘I felt really good about myself because I can certainly tell you I don’t think that about myself. So I was really pleased with it,’ she stated.

‘I know it ruffled some feathers, people felt like you know, is this targeted? Did she ask for it? All in all, I just think, female empowerment, we should be able to do things like that and I loved it and I feel proud of it. I can tell you now they were absolutely supportive and respectful and I wasn’t really naked in that bath, of course I wasn’t. It was all good.’

The Traitors returns on Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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