The Traitors winner Rachel Duffy has announced her mother, who she planned to spend her prize money on, has died.
Rachel, who won the latest series of the BBC show with fellow traitor Stephen Duffy on Friday, shared the sad news on Instagram on Tuesday morning.
‘We are heartbroken to share the passing of our beautiful wee mummy. We kindly ask for privacy as out family grieves during this difficult time,’ she wrote.
Mother of three from Newry in Northern Ireland Rachel spoke often about her mother Anne, 70, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in her forties and later dementia, during her time on the show.
Rachel revealed she would spend the prize money making memories with her mother.
She said: ‘Mummy was just 47 when she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, four years older than I am now, and faces dementia, but still amazes me and my family every single day.’
The Traitors star Rachel Duffy has announced her mother, who she planned to spent her prize money on, has died
Rachel revealed on the show that she would spend the Traitors prize money making memories with her mother, Anne, 70, who had dementia
‘I just want to create memories with her while I’m still lucky enough to have her, and to create memories with my kids, because they just love their nanny.’
In a poignant photograph shared during the show, Anne was seen proudly holding up a T-shirt which says ‘My daughter’s a traitor’ on the front.
On Friday, the 43-year-old became the first female to win a UK series as a Traitor, sharing victory and the £95,750 prize pot with her partner in crime Stephen Libby.
She revealed on last Friday’s show that she entered for the sake of Anne who was a huge fan of the programme and who, Rachel said, had clear advice for her daughter: ‘not to get caught.’
She added last week that she hadn’t spent her prize money yet and needed to make plans with her mother and her husband.
‘I think I’m going to sit down with the kids, my husband and my mum and just think what could we do to have fun together,’ she told the Mail On Sunday.
Giving an update on her mother, Rachel added last week: ‘It’s a hard one because the show was recorded in May so at that time her condition wasn’t as severe as it is now, so she’s not fit to travel as much.
‘We’re trying to do something closer to home so I can’t wait to just sit in front of her and say, “Mummy, what do you want to do, what can we do that you would just love?” God only knows what she’s going to say, but I can’t wait.’
Mother of three from Newry in Northern Ireland Rachel spoke often about her mother Anne, 70, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in her forties, during her time on the show
On Friday, the 43-year-old became the first female to win a UK series as a Traitor, sharing victory and the £95,750 prize pot with her partner in crime Stephen Libby
Rachel also lost her beloved father, Raymond Mullen, in 2016 when he was 67. Her Facebook profile picture is a photograph of him walking her up the aisle on her wedding day.
The pair were exceptionally close and she was devastated when he died. Her older brother is Darren Mullen, who was the manager of football club Newry City, and she also has two other brothers, Neil and Shane, and a sister called Joanne.
The communications director has been branded one of the show’s best-ever players, hailed for her ability to gain so many friends among the Faithfuls.
And Rachel made no secret of the fact she wanted to win the show.
She revealed on last Friday’s show that she entered for the sake of Anne who was a huge fan of the programme and who, Rachel said, had clear advice for her daughter: ‘not to get caught’
That aim was assisted by the four months of FBI online training she had endured, or so she told her fellow contestants in the castle.
‘I was trained by a former FBI agent so I did one of his training courses, but I did lie.
‘I had said it was a four month online course to the guys in the castle, but it was more like a one day course and an e-book, but I still did it, I was just very loose with the phrase and it did help because it gave me something in my back pocket that I could bring up,’ Rachel explained.
She added: ‘It gave everybody a giggle. I mean, like the memes online have been hilarious. But no, I’m not leaving my job to go and join the FBI anytime soon!’
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