‘The Traitors’ star Mercedes Javid forgave Trishelle but not CT for finale betrayal

Mercedes “MJ” Javid forgives one of The Traitors season 2 winners — but not both — after being betrayed by her fellow Faithfuls in the final moments of the finale and walking away with nothing.

Six months after her finale shock, the Shahs of Sunset alum shares that she’s forgiven Trishelle — but not CT, while speaking to Entertainment Weekly at the DirecTV Gets Real party, cohosted by EW and PEOPLE.

At the end of season 2, MJ made it to the final three with The Challenge stars Chris “CT” Tamburello and Trishelle Cannatella after successfully and unanimously banishing the last Traitor, Kate Chastain. Since all three remaining players were Faithfuls, they had the option to end the game and split the $208,100 prize three ways. However, in a last-minute twist, the unity ended there as CT and Trishelle both voted to banish once more. And while CT thought he and Trishelle were going to vote out MJ to split the money in half instead of thirds, Trishelle had doubts about CT and voted to banish him instead.

Since the vote tied at 1-1-1, it went to a re-vote, and CT managed to convince Trishelle to end the game with him and change her vote to banish MJ instead. A stunned MJ could only murmur, “I am so heartbroken, I hope that makes you guys feel great,” as she left the two to celebrate their win. At the reunion, MJ was still furious with the Challenge legends, calling them out for their “grifter energy. Now she explains why she’s not holding a grudge against Trishelle.

“CT, I feel like he just does competition shows,” MJ tells EW. “I don’t think he does relationships outside of the gaming situation. So I don’t really lose a lot of sleep on that.”

It’s a different story with Trishelle, however, despite her change of heart being the reason that MJ went home with no prize money.

“Trishelle, I harbor no ill will because she’s a woman, and she wanted to end the game with me,” MJ reveals. “I just wanted to end it in the Faithful way, and we were three Faithfuls, and that is why I have no regrets for ending it the way a Faithful should.”

While The Traitors was MJ’s first competition reality show, she’s “excited” to get back out there on other franchises. “I won’t be far,” she teases. “I’ve heard rumblings about Big Brother, I think that would be really fun. And being a mom, I wouldn’t have to be gone for that long.”

But she has some hesitations about getting back into the reality competition world after her experience on The Traitors. “Once you pop your cherry, any other experience is so different because you know too much,” she says. “I would be scared.”

MJ adds that it was “so much harder” to compete on The Traitors than she thought. “Even looking back, I can’t believe how I did it,” she said. “It was a combination of psychological and physical challenge, separating yourself from what’s going on at home and not communicating. It was intense.”

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Thursday night’s DirecTV Gets Real event in Los Angeles, Calif. featured MJ along with dozens of other stars celebrating the kickoff of fall reality TV, hosted by Vanderpump Rules alum and Love Island USA host Ariana Madix. Before Ariana got on the microphone to welcome the guests at the Aster Hotel in Hollywood (and joke about a recoupling happening later in the night), she reunited with her Dancing With the Stars season 32 costar and The Brady Bunch alum Barry Williams.

Williams was a fan favorite last season on the ABC dance competition, and was the third member of the Brady family to participate, following TV sister Maureen McCormick, who danced on season 23, and TV mom Florence Henderson, who danced on season 11. However, the actor tells EW he doesn’t think we’ll see another actor from the Brady clan join DWTS.

“Doubtful, doubtful,” Williams says when we asked if any of his other castmates might do the show. “I think you’ve seen the dancers — Maureen and Florence and myself.This is not really Eve Plumb’s thing nor Susan Olsen’s kind of thing, although I wish they would. I would certainly encourage them.”

As for his TV brother Christopher Knight, with whom Williams cohosts a Brady recap podcast, The Real Brady Bros, Williams says there’s absolutely no chance of that happening. “You will not see Christopher Knight on Dancing With the Stars, period,” he revealed. “I had to almost twist his arm to get him on The Masked Singer with me.”

In more DWTS news, recently eliminated pro dancer Ezra Sosa responded after his controversial partner and convicted felon Anna Delvey flippantly declared she learned “nothing” from her experience on the show, which received more backlash from fans and other DWTS stars, including judge Carrie Ann Inaba and former pro Cheryl Burke.

“She learned something!” Sosa tells EW with a laugh. “It honestly didn’t [hurt my feelings when] she said that. I was like, ‘Facts, queen’ … When we were eliminated, I could tell from the jump just staring at her face, she was a little upset about it. So I was like, ‘She’s going to go off on [host] Julianne [Hough], I can see it happening.’ But when she said, ‘Nothing,’ I was like, ‘I’ll take it, this is good.’ It was so iconic though.”

Elsewhere at the party, The Challenge star Nurys Mateo revealed she’s ready to forgive and forget season 40’s recent controversial elimination that sent her boyfriend Horacio Gutierrez Jr. home, thanks to a Zoom call producers had with Horacio and his opponent Derrick Kosinski showing unedited footage of the elimination and the rules that cleared up confusion over who emerged victorious.

“I didn’t want to answer this one but I will say, whoever won, won,” Nurys tells EW. “If after they watched everything, they’re saying Derrick won, then Derrick won. And I’m happy for him. I was always happy for him… I hope now … we can let bygones be bygones. There was a lot of drama going on so I hope everything is good now. Aside from that, I’m just hoping that Horacio can come back now, or will come back, because he doesn’t really want to.”

— Additional reporting by Jillian Sederholm.