Seconds after he met the actor Ross Kemp in Ilminster, Somerset, on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, Prince William, the Prince of Wales, gave away just how closely he and his wife, Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, have been following “Celebrity Traitors.” The prince had come to the town to launch a national emergency preparedness project. He also reached out, rubbed Kemp’s arm and laughed.

Anyone watching the BBC series got the joke immediately. A brush of the arm from fellow contestant Leigh-Anne Pinnock, delivered as the two crossed paths over drinks at the castle, left Kemp — a filmmaker and actor who is an ambassador for the National Emergencies Trust — plainly rattled on screen. His fear, he explained later, was that she was attempting to “murder” him in plain sight — the subtle public gesture traitors use to eliminate a faithful — and he admitted on the BBC show that he had been “so paranoid” about being murdered that way by a touch.

The celebrity run “is getting record audiences with big numbers tuning in to see the start of this series,” and Kemp’s flinch “has gone viral” on social media, drawing almost as much attention as Richard E Grant declaring he was a Traitor shortly after being given the role.

Why William Touched Kemp’s Arm

Later, posing for photographs, the prince revived the gag with a hand on Kemp’s shoulder. Then he started fishing. “Do you watch The Traitors? I’m going to get the answer to what happens and I am going to tell you all later. Spoiler alert today… he’s here…” William joked to a group of young people in the town. Kemp, smiling, gave up only this: “I am a faithful.”

A Night in With Kate

Given the show’s place in his home life, the prince’s hunger for a spoiler is easy to understand. Royal biographer Robert Hardman wrote in his book “Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story” that King Charles still enjoys staying up late writing letters, while a member of William’s team described the heir’s idea of a fun evening as a chance to “sit down with the Princess” in front of “The Traitors.”

Daily Mail royal editor Rebecca English, speaking on the YouTube program Palace Confidential, said of the Prince and Princess of Wales: “Now, William and Catherine are massive Traitors fans. I can tell you that now. They love the programme. Absolutely glued to it.” The show carries an IMDb rating of 8.7.

The viewing habit runs through the entire Wales household. When William presented Stephen Lambert, whose production company makes the show, with his OBE at Windsor Castle on Oct. 8, 2025, the conversation turned to the first celebrity series, which premiered that evening. “He said he and the family were very much looking forward to watching it,” Lambert recalled. “It was going to be a big treat for them and probably for the nation, he expected.” William and Kate share three children: Prince George, 13, Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, eight.

He has given away his wife’s viewing tastes before. At a charity gala in 2019, he told Claudia Winkleman, now the host of “The Traitors,” that he had watched “Strictly Come Dancing” a couple of times. “Catherine is a huge fan and my mother-in-law loves it,” he said.

Asked about William and Kate watching at home, Kemp took the royal fandom in stride. “That’s great. Them and the rest of the country. I’ve been on the TV for 43 years but I’ve never known anything like this,” he said.

A charity of his choosing stands to collect the £100,000 prize if Kemp outlasts the 20 other contestants in the second celebrity series, each of whom is playing for a good cause of their own. Claudia Winkleman presents the format, which sets contestants chasing the traitors hidden among them while they complete challenges that build the pot. Should a traitor still be standing at the final, the whole pot goes to that traitor and the faithfuls get nothing.

What the Ready Together Toolkit Does

Ready Together was the reason for the day out — a National Emergencies Trust toolkit designed so that communities the length of the U.K. can prepare for and respond to crises including flooding and wildfires. Any size of community can use it, with the contents shaped around local risks and needs. One gap in particular is what a release from Kensington Palace said the project sets out to close: neighbors are widely willing to help one another in a crisis, yet far fewer people trust that local structures and plans would actually work. The prince was there as the trust’s patron “to showcase new equipment being rolled out to assist those affected by flooding throughout the winter.”

William, 44, has been patron of the trust since 2020. During the day, he and Kemp met its chief executive, Mhairi Sharp. “Being prepared for anything is better than being unprepared,” Kemp told the Press Association ahead of the visit. Communities, he noted, had rallied during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he wondered aloud how much stronger that effort might have been with advance knowledge of which neighbors could help where.

From a Cafe to the Fire Station

With local volunteers and young people, the prince and Kemp worked through a hands-on training exercise. One emergency scenario followed another, each probing whether local know-how, long-standing relationships and the networks already in place can withstand a sudden disruption. Organizers picked the town because residents and local organizations there already pull together in exactly that way, working to shield those most at risk.

Community leaders and business owners met the prince at Sweet Surprise, a cafe staffed through work opportunities it creates for adults with learning disabilities, which also stepped in to help the town during flooding. He also heard from the Ilminster Resilience Group, which supported residents through severe flooding. At Ilminster Fire Station, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service crews showed him the mapping and forecasting tools they use against a growing wildfire risk.

Before Somerset, William had toured flood-hit farming areas in Wales and England, among them Skenfrith in southeast Wales and Herefordshire. The spoiler hunt, meanwhile, came to nothing: his departure from Ilminster left him no wiser about the ending than his arrival had, so he and the princess will find out along with the rest of the country.